9 Questions You Should Ask Your Internet Hosting Company. By Dee Brian
1. How often do you back up the files?
The answer you should be looking for is that they backup every night. You should also keep a up to date copy of your site on your computer to be on the safe side.
2. What sort of equipment and software are in place to ensure that my site is up?
Most Internet Hosting Companies use some combination of equipment and software to ensure that the servers are up and working. You want to make sure that the server is hooked up to an UPS (uninterrupted Power Supply). The UPS is just a big battery that will provide the server with power for 30 minutes to several hours. Also most Hosting Companies have software and equipment that monitors the servers and restarts them if they quit serving pages. You will also want to know if this fails, does the company have a way to restart the server manually.
3. How many domains can I host per account?
If you have 2 domain names, say joestools.com and cooltools.com, and wanted them to both go to the same site, would they charge you extra for the domain names or since it all goes to one site will you be charged just for one. If you plan on hosing several sites to see which ones will be successful, you might want to ask for a volume discount or ask if they have a reseller package.
4. What are their billing policies?
You need to find out who to contact if you have a problem with billing and what is the process for resolving problems.
5. What is the procedure for uploading files to your account?
You want to know if you will have 24 hour FTP access. Some hosting companies restrict how you can upload files to the servers.
6. Do they provide log files or Stats?
Hosting companies usually do one or the other, either provide you with the raw logs for you account or provide you with some sort of online statistics. You will want to make sure that the logs contain information from search engines on the words and phrases used, how long the visitor stayed at the site, entry page, number of page visits, broken links and errors, and exit page.
7. Do they provide Form to email processing?
Nearly every hosting company will provide atleast a basic form of this. You will want to know if there are any limitations on the size of the form. Also you might want to ask if there is a way to encrypt the form. If so you could use this for an ecommerce solution until you are ready for a shopping cart.
8. What exactly is included in the monthly charge?
You want to know what the features of the account are, but you also want to know if you need them to do something extra whether there will be a charge for it.
9. How quickly they respond when you have questions?
Before choosing a hosting company call them up or email them with a question and see how quickly they have an answer for you.
Dee Brian is the owner of Used Mice Web Hosting http://usedmice.com. She works with people to set up and establish a presence on the web. She can be reached at mailto:dee@usedmice.com.
This issue of Ebusiness Basics is sponsored by Used Mice Web Hosting and Design, virtual company specialists. They can be reached at http://www.usedmice.com.
Copyright © 2000, all rights reserved. Permission is granted to reproduce, copy or distribute Ebusiness Basics so long as this copyright notice and full information about contacting the author is attached. The author of this article is: Dee Brian. She can be contacted by email at: mailto:dee@usedmice.com, or by phone at (870) 870-1087.
Please feel free to forward this article to your friends and colleagues, since your recommendation is how we grow. Anyone can subscribe to Ebusiness Basics by sending email to mailto:newsletter@usedmice.com.
| DISCLAIMER: The content provided in this article is not warranted or guaranteed by Developer Shed, Inc. The content provided is intended for entertainment and/or educational purposes in order to introduce to the reader key ideas, concepts, and/or product reviews. As such it is incumbent upon the reader to employ real-world tactics for security and implementation of best practices. We are not liable for any negative consequences that may result from implementing any information covered in our articles or tutorials. If this is a hardware review, it is not recommended to open and/or modify your hardware. |
More Web Hosting Articles
More By Developer Shed  developerWorks - FREE Tools!
|
Effective governance for lean development isn’t about command and control. Instead, the focus is on enabling the right behaviors and practices through collaborative and supportive techniques. Hear from Scott Ambler on how it is far more effective to motivate people to do the right thing than it is to force them to do so. Learn how to form a lightweight, collaboration-based framework that reflects the realities of modern IT organizations.
FREE! Go There Now!
| | | |
Poor Requirements Management capabilities in an Enterprise have been linked to excessive project failures, escalating IT costs, and failure to deliver competitive advantage into the marketplace. Join Brianna M Smith from IBM Rational and learn about how successful organizations align IT and Business stakeholders through collaborative processes and tools for effective requirements management, and how an integrated approach across the IT lifecycle can provide unparalleled visibility and traceability to ensure that project teams are delivering on the business vision by "doing the right things" and "doing things right."
FREE! Go There Now!
| | | |
Download the Rational Application Developer (RAD) v7.5 open beta code and start developing applications for the JEE5 standard which features EJB3.0, JPA, JSF 1.2, JSP 2.1 and Servlet 2.5 standards. When you use this beta you will see how you can increase developer productivity for already existing applications with improved support for refactoring, as well as adding new features to existing applications. In addition, the beta provides tooling for JD Edwards, Oracle, SAP, Siebel and PeopleSoft to improve the developer productivity with these enterprise systems.
FREE! Go There Now!
| | | |
Join us for this web seminar to learn how you can defend your web applications from attack. Learn about the 3 most common web application attacks, including how they occur and what can be done to prevent them. We’ll also discuss manual versus automated approaches for scanning and identifying web application vulnerabilities and how IBM Rational AppScan, an automated vulnerability scanner, can help you automate more of what you are doing manually today.
FREE! Go There Now!
| | | |
This tutorial shows new users of IBM WebSphere Business Monitor Version 6.0.2 how to perform the "Hello World" equivalent for monitoring business process applications. It is intended to help you get familiar with the capabilities of the product.
FREE! Go There Now!
| | | |
IBM Enterprise Modernization solutions help organizations evolve core IT systems towards modern architectures and technologies—reducing the burden of maintenance and freeing up resources to develop new business requirements and capabilities. With the IBM Enterprise Modernization Sandbox for System z you can evaluate IBM Enterprise Modernization solutions focused on five key areas: Assets, Architectures, Skills, Processes and Infrastructures, and Investment. Each solution is based upon real customer experiences and offers a proven path to get you started with your modernization projects.
FREE! Go There Now!
| | | |
Join this Rational Talks to You teleconference on December 6 at 1:00 pm ET to participate in an agile application development discussion and get your questions answered on using IBM Rational Method Composer in a distributed environment.Get your questions answered!
FREE! Go There Now!
| | | |
This whitepaper provides areas to consider when evaluating any software configuration management solution. It addresses how the IBM solutions (Rational ClearCase and Rational ClearQuest) meet the needs and requirements of both project leaders and developers to provide successful Software Change and Configuration Management.
FREE! Go There Now!
| | | |
In this webcast, you'll get an introduction to the eXtreme Transaction Processing (XTP) features of WebSphere Extended Deployment and the common architectural traits required by XTP applications. See how WebSphere Extended Deployment's ObjectGrid feature provides a state-of-the-art infrastructure for hosting XTP applications.
FREE! Go There Now!
| | | |
User communities play an important role in communication and collaboration around products, solutions and other areas of special interest to members. Successful communities are able to provide the right mix of content and services to deliver a value proposition that resonates with each audience. Join Tom Inman, VP of Marketing for Information and Platform Solutions as he introduces the new LeverageINFORMATION community. During this webcast, learn about the value provided by the community and how customers and partners derive value from the community in addressing their own technical and business challenges.
FREE! Go There Now!
| | | |
All FREE IBM® developerWorks Tools!
| |
