web hosting
Web Hosting – Common Problems and Troubleshooting
October 4, 2011 | 
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Every website that is created needs a location or an address where it can reside. In order to achieve this, the user is required to go through a hosting company. A hosting company provider the user with a web address, server space, bandwidth and a loads of other tools and applications required to host a website. In the process, users may find themselves grappling with various web hosting problems and issues that would come the fore. Listed below are a few common problems with web hosting companies that you may have to deal with:
Lack of technical and/or customer support: A quality web hosting service would offer 24/7 technical and customer support. So, no matter what time difference you are residing in, you should always have access to an open line customer service representative in order to troubleshoot technical/common problems. Make sure that a real person takes your call and it should not be an automated or recorded message on the other end. This would reflect the reliability and credibility of the web hosting company.
Pricing structures, reliability and uptime guarantee: While some web-hosting companies offer dearth cheap hosting services, their services are often deficit of 100% uptime, reliability and speed. These are a few issues that the user must brace himself from, before registering with a company that fails to guarantee a minimum uptime of 99%. Also ensure that the company is offering all the essential features and tools for smooth functioning of the website.
Hidden Costs and lack of add-on features: While the hosting company may offer all the essential tools and application support, ensure that these are offered within the price range of the package selected. Otherwise, you may find yourself shelling out additional money for add-on tools that are usually offered by other web hosting services. Ensure that no hidden costs are involved and all the essential features are in place for your website to function smoothly.
There are a few hosting companies that do not offer the “control panel” which is vital for a web hosting account. The control panel comes equipped with a whole lot of goodies including PGP secure e-mail, shopping carts; log analysis, database creation, etc.
Lack of high-tech servers: The user must ensure that the hosting company that they are about to register with employs the latest technology and expertise in order to provide superior services to their users.
It is therefore imperative to delve into the seemingly intricate aspects of the company before you open a hosting account with them. Do not get lured into cheap deals and ads like “unlimited bandwidth” etc. Weigh your requirements carefully and set yourself a monthly budget. If your website has a potential for growth or is e-commerce enabled, your website requirements would greatly differ as compared to hosting just a simple web page.
Speak to experienced users; get involved in forums and blogs and read unbiased user reviews. This would give you an idea of the level of services offered by the web hosting company.
Web Hosting – Expensive Is Not Necessarily Better
So many times in life, you get what you pay for and as this is the case almost anywhere you look, it isn’t the case with web hosting. Web hosting doesn’t need to be ultra-expensive to be good and many times when you are paying an arm and a leg for your web hosting, you are simply throwing your money out the window.
Web hosting providers have become so numerous today that if you were to conduct an online search using the term, you would have to dedicate a week of your life to sift through the various companies in order to find out about all of them. What you will almost certainly find though is that many of the hosting companies out there are very affordable and some are very expensive. Normal thinking dictates you going with one of the more expensive hosting companies as their big price tag must mean that they offer a lot more service-wise, but conventional wisdom is not the best wisdom in this case.
Really, you only need to be sure that the web hosting company you decide to go with has:
• Fast Page Downloads: If your pages load slowly the likely result will be the visitors leaving in a hurry. Fast page downloads equate to more visitor time on your website.
• Fast Data Transfer: If you have pictures and or videos on your website, you also want those to load quickly. Like a slow page loading, slow data loading is also a visitor turn-off and will have them leave as fast as they arrive.
• Unlimited Disk Space: While you may not require a lot of space for your website at first, you may need more down the line. If you limit yourself, you may have to look for a different web hosting provider down the road and go through the hassles of switching hosting companies. It is better to know that no matter how big your website becomes, your web hosting company can handle it.
• At Least 99% Uptime: Even the most economical web hosting companies will offer at least a 99% uptime and usually more. This is important as your website doesn’t do you any good if it is down with problems.
• A 24/7 Customer Support Toll Free Number: If something should go wrong then you will want to be able to get the support you need fast. You can’t do that with a hosting service that only offers e-mail support or only offers customer support from 9am to 5pm Monday thru Friday.
If you look close enough you will find that most hosting companies offer this and more. So, with all things being equal, why would you want to pay more? You don’t have to pay through the nose in order to get great web hosing, all you really need to do is conduct a little research and make sure that the web hosting company you choose has the ability to grow with you as your needs will dictate.
Posted in web hosting | 
Tags: Conventional Wisdom, Hosting Companies, Web Hosting Company | 
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