Things NOT to look for in a Web Host's Support & Services
One of our customers happens to be an incredible author of Internet Marketing techniques. They own many domains, only a few of which are hosted by AlphaOne (http://rss-success.net is one). Because their area of expertise interests me, I have started spending some time on http://www.freetrafficdirectory.com.The other day the site was down for over 14 hours, and apparently this is not the first time this has happened in recent weeks. Ok, as an owner of a hosting company, I know this DOES happen. Hardware fails, hackers attack, etc. But in talking to our customer I found a situation that I could best describe as incredible. Now bear in mind I am someone who lives by the premise of supporting my customers as I would want to be supported. So my standards for support are fairly high.
And I know for a fact that you can and SHOULD get better support from a smaller web hosting company than you do from the "big boys". Why? Because we can! Because smaller firms don't outsource their support. Oh sure, you won't get the toll free numbers and a 24/7 "call us with any small problem" phone support - though those of us committed to service DO provide phone support 24/7 for server related emergencies. But a smaller host usually has a staff that performs multiple functions and you won't get someone who doesn't know Php from PH Levels...chuckle...
From this customer's experience, and a couple of others who have turned to us for help over the last couple of years, I have a list of what NOT to look for in a Web Host. (Tomorrow I will follow up with what TO look for...)
1. Web Hosts who close their support center for the weekend. I mean what's up with that? Don't most webmasters do a lot of their work at nights and on weekends?
2. Web Hosts who are small, but have their own data center. What that usually means is that they have a T1, or maybe two T1's, from a small office or apartment somewhere that connect you to the Internet. No backbone redundancy, no physical security, and probably no 24/7 monitoring by network savvy staff. A big clue is a hosting company that doesn't tell you anything about their data center on their website. It should have been carefully selected and they should be proud enough of it to talk about it!
3. Hosts who take 24 hours or more to even respond to an e-mail or Trouble Ticket. Ok, so we get busy with critical issues and sometimes a minor "how do I do __________" gets shoved aside for a couple of shifts. But taking longer than a day to respond to a request shows a complete lack of concern for YOUR problem. Sure it might not be life threatening, or server threatening, but it is still a problem for YOU - which means it should be treated as such by your host.
4. Web Hosts who sneak in fine print leaving you with major charges for bandwidth overage. I mean come on, most hosts have plenty of bandwidth to spare. I know - we've been doing this for years and never come close to our bandwidth allotments on any of our servers. And if they DO charge for additional bandwidth, anything more than $1.50 - $2.50 per GB is insane. You should always get at least 10 times your disk space in bandwidth FREE. (For example, if you have a 200 MB hosting plan, at LEAST 2GB of bandwidth should be available to you at no charge)
5. Web Hosts should always provide you with more than one way to access tech support and knowledge bases. Say your host gives you a support e-mail of support@ myhost.com. And in order to login to their Support Center you have to go to www. myhost.com. OK...what happens if that particular server is down? What if that happens to be the same server YOUR site is on? Now your site is down, your host is down and you have no way of getting information on what the problem is and how long it is expected to last. That's going to leave YOU, and your customers or visitors pretty well shut out. A web host should always provide logins to their support center on at least two different servers & domain names. This redundancy assures you will most likely be able to contact someone in the event of an emergency.
Oh there are several more, but I will save them for another time. If you are interested in some articles on how to select a web host, http://www.alphaone-tech.com has several in its Webmaster Resources Area.
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