TECK
Fri 15th Nov '02, 10:36am
There are many hosts out there, but as many as they are, it seems to all of us that most of them don't know how to do business properly.
So you end up with service interruptions, bad customer service and other major problems we all want to avoid.
Below you will read few guidelines on what to ask your host before you sign-up. If they are not capable to answer to you is because they are not reliable. Is as simple as this.
Let's start, shall we?
GENERAL OPTIONS
1. Don't get impressed by a nice web site design.
Most of cheap hosts use this scheme to fool you with a professional image and they have mice running in their network room.
2. Contact Us?
1-800 line, fax, life support or IRC channel are needed.
Don't trust people who show you an ICQ or MSN handle. Those are the people that will mostly create you problems, since most of them are alone in their business with no partner. Or at least ask them why they use an IM?
In an IRC room you see several people ready to help you with your problem, for example.
2. Unlimited bandwidth transfer for traffic?
You browse through their packages and see this? Run away. That's another cheap scheme to attract you as a customer. Any solid host cannot afford not to run a bandwidth limit on your site transfers, or else their backbone will get affected.
3. 30 days money back guarantee
That's important also. That means your host is decent enough to give you the money back if you are not satisfied with their services.
NETWORK OPTIONS
This is where many people neglect everything. Maintenance, security, temperature, backbone type and many other aspects make a huge difference between a solid host and a cheap one hunting out clients to make money fast then declare bankruptcy.
Fell free to email the host and request all the information below.
Also you can ask for pictures of their network room.
Any decent host will have pictures with their network room with details related to each vital components to have it working flawlessly.
They will give you detailed information like related to their hardware (see them detailed below, with additional questions):
Verizon™ OC192 Fiber (RBOC/TELCO)
CTSI™ OC192 Fiber (RBOC/TELCO)
PPL Telcom™ 2GBPS Fiber
Redundant BGP Routing on Cisco™ 7206VXR
Cisco™ 12008 Core Router
Sprint™ OC3 Connectivity
AT&T™ & MCI™ DS3 Connectivity
Qwest™ 100MBPS Metro Ethernet
AT&T™ OC3 Connectivity
1. Environment?
Ask if systems provide a virtually dust-free and particle-free computing environment, temperature, humidity, and air-quality regulation.
2. Security?
Do they have restricted access monitored by qualified personnel 24 hours a day, every day?
3. Power Supply?
Are they backed up and protected by UPS systems on each individual rack? Do they have a power generator? Remember, power is vital.
4. Backup System?
Do they have a backup system in place? What type?
5. Monitoring?
Do they monitor of all hardware, including routers, switches, UPS systems, and servers? Also they should monitor power, environmental factors (temperature, humidity, etc), generator status, network connectivity, critical services/ports (including FTP, HTTP, SMTP, HTTPS, SSH, TELNET, and POP3, etc), network monitoring of the LAN, Internet connectivity.
6. Hardware?
What type of hardware do they use? Router, primary switch, motherboards, processors, network cards, power backups, generator system, video cameras to monitor the network room.
7. Software?
What OS they use? I recommend RedHat. Is a highly configurable system, and well known for speed and stability. RedHat Linux servers have been documented to remain operating for up to one year at a time without even requiring a reboot. The Apache Server also compliments the RedHat OS.
That should be it by now. If your host provided you with decent information that satisfies you, then go for it.
So you end up with service interruptions, bad customer service and other major problems we all want to avoid.
Below you will read few guidelines on what to ask your host before you sign-up. If they are not capable to answer to you is because they are not reliable. Is as simple as this.
Let's start, shall we?
GENERAL OPTIONS
1. Don't get impressed by a nice web site design.
Most of cheap hosts use this scheme to fool you with a professional image and they have mice running in their network room.
2. Contact Us?
1-800 line, fax, life support or IRC channel are needed.
Don't trust people who show you an ICQ or MSN handle. Those are the people that will mostly create you problems, since most of them are alone in their business with no partner. Or at least ask them why they use an IM?
In an IRC room you see several people ready to help you with your problem, for example.
2. Unlimited bandwidth transfer for traffic?
You browse through their packages and see this? Run away. That's another cheap scheme to attract you as a customer. Any solid host cannot afford not to run a bandwidth limit on your site transfers, or else their backbone will get affected.
3. 30 days money back guarantee
That's important also. That means your host is decent enough to give you the money back if you are not satisfied with their services.
NETWORK OPTIONS
This is where many people neglect everything. Maintenance, security, temperature, backbone type and many other aspects make a huge difference between a solid host and a cheap one hunting out clients to make money fast then declare bankruptcy.
Fell free to email the host and request all the information below.
Also you can ask for pictures of their network room.
Any decent host will have pictures with their network room with details related to each vital components to have it working flawlessly.
They will give you detailed information like related to their hardware (see them detailed below, with additional questions):
Verizon™ OC192 Fiber (RBOC/TELCO)
CTSI™ OC192 Fiber (RBOC/TELCO)
PPL Telcom™ 2GBPS Fiber
Redundant BGP Routing on Cisco™ 7206VXR
Cisco™ 12008 Core Router
Sprint™ OC3 Connectivity
AT&T™ & MCI™ DS3 Connectivity
Qwest™ 100MBPS Metro Ethernet
AT&T™ OC3 Connectivity
1. Environment?
Ask if systems provide a virtually dust-free and particle-free computing environment, temperature, humidity, and air-quality regulation.
2. Security?
Do they have restricted access monitored by qualified personnel 24 hours a day, every day?
3. Power Supply?
Are they backed up and protected by UPS systems on each individual rack? Do they have a power generator? Remember, power is vital.
4. Backup System?
Do they have a backup system in place? What type?
5. Monitoring?
Do they monitor of all hardware, including routers, switches, UPS systems, and servers? Also they should monitor power, environmental factors (temperature, humidity, etc), generator status, network connectivity, critical services/ports (including FTP, HTTP, SMTP, HTTPS, SSH, TELNET, and POP3, etc), network monitoring of the LAN, Internet connectivity.
6. Hardware?
What type of hardware do they use? Router, primary switch, motherboards, processors, network cards, power backups, generator system, video cameras to monitor the network room.
7. Software?
What OS they use? I recommend RedHat. Is a highly configurable system, and well known for speed and stability. RedHat Linux servers have been documented to remain operating for up to one year at a time without even requiring a reboot. The Apache Server also compliments the RedHat OS.
That should be it by now. If your host provided you with decent information that satisfies you, then go for it.