9
Questions You Should Ask Your Internet Hosting Company
9 Questions You Should Ask Your Internet Hosting
Company
1. How often do you back up the files?
The answer you should be looking for is that they backup every
night. You should also keep a up to date copy of your site on your
computer to be on the safe side.
2. What sort of equipment and software are in place to
ensure that my site is up?
Most Internet Hosting Companies use some combination of equipment
and software to ensure that the servers are up and working. You
want to make sure that the server is hooked up to an UPS (uninterrupted
Power Supply). The UPS is just a big battery that will provide the
server with power for 30 minutes to several hours. Also most Hosting
Companies have software and equipment that monitors the servers
and restarts them if they quit serving pages. You will also want
to know if this fails, does the company have a way to restart the
server manually.
3. How many domains can I host per account?
If you have 2 domain names, say joestools.com and cooltools.com,
and wanted them to both go to the same site, would they charge you
extra for the domain names or since it all goes to one site will
you be charged just for one. If you plan on hosing several sites
to see which ones will be successful, you might want to ask for
a volume discount or ask if they have a reseller package.
4. What are their billing policies?
You need to find out who to contact if you have a problem with
billing and what is the process for resolving problems.
5. What is the procedure for uploading files to your account?
You want to know if you will have 24 hour FTP access. Some hosting
companies restrict how you can upload files to the servers.
6. Do they provide log files or Stats?
Hosting companies usually do one or the other, either provide you
with the raw logs for you account or provide you with some sort
of online statistics. You will want to make sure that the logs contain
information from search engines on the words and phrases used, how
long the visitor stayed at the site, entry page, number of page
visits, broken links and errors, and exit page.
7. Do they provide Form to email processing?
Nearly every hosting company will provide atleast a basic form
of this. You will want to know if there are any limitations on the
size of the form. Also you might want to ask if there is a way to
encrypt the form. If so you could use this for an ecommerce solution
until you are ready for a shopping cart.
8. What exactly is included in the monthly charge?
You want to know what the features of the account are, but you
also want to know if you need them to do something extra whether
there will be a charge for it.
9. How quickly they respond when you have questions?
Before choosing a hosting company call them up or email them with
a question and see how quickly they have an answer for you.
About the Author Dee Brian is the owner
of Used Mice Web Hosting http://usedmice.com.
She works with people to set up and establish a presence on the
web. She can be reached at dee@usedmice.com.
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