Choosing your Web Presence Provider (WPP) can be a critical point in taking your business to the Internet to deal with the world. There are a lot of choices on the net to host with, and if you make a bad choice, your site can be slow, or even offline more than online. You want to make sure that you ask your WPP some questions depending on what you want your site to do.
- What is the Uptime Rate of their servers?
This is critical in your site. If their uptime rate is less than 95%, you need to be cautious. If they have more downtime than that, you will have the downtime in return. This is the main loss for business.
- What is their ping time to their provider?
A lot of WPP’s will boast that they have OC-12’s and DS-3’s and all of these high-speed fiber connections. Any company can have a fast line, but if their ping time is over 50 milliseconds from the main server to the backbone, it does not matter what line they have. Do not confuse this with what your ping time to them is. This is just the rate of time it takes the WPP to talk to the Internet.
- What options do they provide with their packages?
Depending on what type of site you are going to want and develop into, you want to make sure that your WPP is going to allow for your site to grow. Most WPP’s will offer several different packages with more space, options, and even database connectivity. Even if you are planning a little site with only static HTML pages now, in a year you may want to add in a database, use ASP, or need a Secure Server (SSL) for online transactions. Make sure that the company that you choose will allow you to grow into this, because changing providers is usually a very big hassle for the consumer.
- How fast and what type of support do they offer?
Even the world’s best developer will need tech support from time to time. A vast majority of the “budget hosts” will only offer email support, and that is on their time when they want to get back to you. You may pay a couple dollars more a month for the 24-hour support with a toll-free phone number, but when you need that support, that extra 3-10 dollars a month could save you hundreds in lost revenue from your site when you need it.
- Do they have references of clients that they can provide?
This one is usually a no-no. Do not be surprised if a company will not tell you their clientele and how to get a hold of their customers. In general, there should always be at least 2 or 3 people that each company has that are happy enough with their services that they are glad to talk about their WPP. If the company cannot provide this, it is usually because they have not had any praise from their own customers L
- Do I need to go with an established WPP?
Just because a company is new is not necessarily a bad thing. Every company has to start sometime, and you should not be afraid to go with a newer company. When looking into a new company that just started, to be sure they are not going to fold in a month, check and see if they are a part of a larger corporation, and that they have real employees. If they do have this, larger companies usually hang in there and know things are not going to happen overnight. It is the self-financed or the “resellers (see below)” that will go under rapidly. Suggestion: Watch the company for about 2 months and see if their prices keep changing, or if their website keeps getting redesigned once a week. If they start taking away options, or running really low specials, these are all signs of a company that will fail within the first 6-12 months.
- Ask the company up front if they are a “reseller”.
Ask the company if they own their own servers or rent space from another company. If they are a “reseller”; one who rents space from another company; it may be impossible for them to fix problems, or help you with yours. Do not confuse this with a company that “co-hosts” their servers with another company. This is a very common practice that is a very efficient way to keep costs down. When a company “co-hosts” their servers with another company, they share the cost of a high-speed fiber line with another company, which in turn makes the cost of doing business a lot less. A DS-3 connection can cost a company over $20,000 a month, so co-hosting with other companies is not a bad thing.
- Do they offer a choice of Unix or NT services?
This is a major factor in the decision process. You may only need static HTML right now to get your site started, but in the future, you may need to use PERL, ASP, SQL, or something that is reliant on a specific type of hosting. As stated before, switching companies can be really hard on a consumer, but switching internal servers within your WPP is very simple and most of the time will not result in data loss.
- Do they offer development support?
Most companies will charge for development support because of the different nature for each site. If your WPP offers development support, it will be a lot easier and faster for you to go through them to get this, rather than having to “shop” for someone else to do your development for you. Plus, if they offer it, you will not have your username and password with people that you do not know. Having to give this information out can be a real strain on security factors for your site, and most WPP’s will not guarantee information lost due to a compromised password that you revealed.
- Do they give you your own IP address?
If they offer none of the above things, they NEED to offer this. Now days, even some search engines are not going to index “IP-less” domains. When you are assigned your own IP address for your site, you will have greater security, greater functionality, and fewer problems in development of advanced features. Make sure that you get your own IP address when you apply for hosting through your WPP.
This list only covers the things that you must consider when choosing a provider. These are the most important things to ask and all are for your safety. If you should ever need further assistance and have questions about this article or if you need to ask more questions about choosing a hosting provider, please feel free to email me at admin@immenet.com and I will assist you to the best of my ability.
Frank Arena
Chief Information Officer
Imme Networks
http://www.immenet.com