Four Questions To Ask When Shopping For Web Hosting
by Mitch Keeler

Web hosting is a difficult and confusing business to get yourself into, but sooner or later just about everybody thinks about starting a Web site for themselves. No mater if you are starting up a Web site for your child's baseball team or for your own corporate business, the things you need to look for to succeed are them same for all. Here are a few things to consider asking any Web hosting company you feel is worthy of having you as a client.

What is the Web hosting support like?

Depending on the force behind the company, your support could be anything from great to horrible. Get a good feeling for how quickly they can get to you by sending them a few pre-sales questions. How in depth are they with the answers they give you? A good support team will give you enough information so that you know what the answer is and give it to you in a way that even the dullest could understand. How quickly did you get answered?

Most Web hosting companies will get you answered within twenty-four hours. If you have to wait longer than that, then it is time to worry.

What services do they promise to provide?

Receiving a boat load of services, promises and gimmicks are not a rare thing in the world of Web hosting. Often you will receive several pre-installed scripts, control panels, and other things that could be helpful to your Web hosting experience. The two things you want to pay the most attention to though would be bandwidth and space. If your Web site does not have enough bandwidth then you might loose your Web site till the limits are reset the next month.

You also need to make sure you have enough space. If you don't have enough space, then you will not have the option of expanding your Web site or growing it any larger. It is always good to buy a little more than you think you might need in both areas, just to stay on the safe side.

How many customers are they serving per server?

Depending on the Web hosting plan or the Web hosting company the server that your hosted on might be a little more packed than you might think. A responsible Web hosting company will not overstuff the servers they own or collocate.

Most of the time, sharing a server with several different companies is not a bad thing though. However, you do need to ask your Web hosting company about the numbers. If you are shopping around for Web hosting, you need to ask each company about the client per server ratio. Go with the company that fits your other needs, and has the least amount of clients per Web hosting server.

How are the servers systems run?

What type of operating system is your Web hosting company using? Depending if they are using a Linux or Windows based server, you could or could not be able to install some scripts. Not all scripts have versions for both server types. Have a good idea what type of scripts you might need for the server you are on.

What other questions should I ask?

There are obviously more questions you can and you should ask a Web hosting company before you sign on with them. The thing to remember is to not be intimidated, and that if they do not answer your questions, they do not deserve your business.