A better web host is the foundation of a good website or an online business. Finding a good web host can be a never ending struggle for small publishers unless you get a dedicated server for your website. But even dedicated servers can have some issues. Below is the a small checklist to follow before selecting a web hosting company to work with.
Server Security
Server security is an important aspect of a web host. Some of the common network attacks are DDoS attacks. Its distributed denial or service attack that won’t let your website process any forms on web page. It can affect a single or multiple websites across the web server.
A web hosting company must have an appliance to prevent such network attacks. This device is expensive and needs to be connected to the server to prevent DDoS attacks. Many small scale web hosting providers might not have this appliances, so it is necessary to ask the company if they have any preventive measures set up for DDoS or network related attacks.
Invisible iFrame attacks
Invisible iFrame attacks are when your website starts shifting down and a white empty space keeps adding at the top. When you see the source of the web page you find an iFrame getting added on top of the page. Even if you remove the code, upload the new file again it will keep adding there. As time goes this space will keep increasing and your website will keep shifting down. This had happened to be with my previous web host.
Invisible iFrame attacks have got nothing to do with any web hosting provider or the server. But these attacks are normally caused when a rogue automated script or a hacker happens to know our FTP password. I was told by the web hosting provider to change the FTP password and those attacks stopped happening.
Website Up-time
No one can guarantee you 100% up time but most of the big websites are up and running just fine 100% of the time at any given time. There are some established and successful web hosting providers that have worst up time reports.
You can always use free site up time monitoring services to check your website up time. It might be possible that your site is down when you are sleeping.
Get Reviews
Search for reviews about a web hosting company on internet. Read other people experiences to get an idea if it is the right server for you. You might not know about an issue unless you face it.
You need to be very careful while finding and reading reviews because i have read negative reviews about some of the fully established companies like Go Daddy too.
Hidden Features and limitations
Some of the web hosts i worked in past had hidden features and limitations not mentioned by them in public on their list of features page. For example, i was able to send only 400 emails per hour. I never knew it unless i started getting ‘mail not sent’ errors. I was later told that i am not allowed to send any more than 400 mails per hour.
Join Discussion Boards and Forums
Join forums related to web hosting talk and start a discussion about a web host you want to open an account with. It is a good way to get reviews about it and to find about other people experiences with it.
Type of website and server configuration
If you have a website that needs a lot of server resources, then you might want to go for dedicated web server. Suppose if you have a file sharing, photo sharing or videos related website that can consume a lot of server resources, then make sure you have enough bandwidth. On dedicated servers you have enough but limited bandwidth, you should be aware of your bandwidth limits and usage to prevent site getting off due to over usage.
