Web Hosting Providers can bring you down.

This year I went through web hosting hell, let me tell you… but I’m quite sure many of you may know what I’m talking about.  Let’s see, this year I went through GoDaddy.com, HostDepartment.com, Xo.com/Concentric Networks, and ahhh, finally Register.com.    Plus, I get to try everybody elses web hosting provider in the Bay Area.  None of these hosts are perfect but one of them certainly tries.

My experience with hostdepartment.com was the worst.  These guys sell dirt cheap hosting, and as they say you get what you pay for.  Denial is the first thing that comes to mind with this kind of support.  Basically you have no telephone support and you really need to know what you are doing to set things up.  The problem with their denial is that when it comes time to holding them accountable for problems with their web hosting, their tech support will generally blame you for the problems.

I finally switched everything to register.com two months ago, and let me tell, you what a difference!  I don’t make a penny for telling you this, so listen up.  I don’t care if you have to pay up, or its a pain in th neck…if your current web host sucks, and your website is important, then move (period.)  This is much easier said than done.  But, if you are serious about having a web presence, this is one of the most important decisions you will ever have to make.  Assuming you are involved with this decision.  And no, the company who sold you your domain name does not have to be the same company that “hosts” your website.

Many of my clients simply make the mistake of not researching this, and it is understandable because even your average tech has only an opinion of what he thinks you need, and you never really know what you are getting with web hosting providers until you actually try them, and by that time your committed for 1 year or many more.  Most people would rather just suffer with their current host than try to find out how to make DNS nameserver changes. Yes, I know…the mere thought of having to figure out what DNS is, is dreaded for most people.  So, if you leave it to someone else to decide, then hopefully you chose a tech who knows what he/she is talking about first of all, and second he/she should have experience with a few hosts.  Generally, your webmaster will make this decision for you based on what he/she is comfortable with.  In some cases the office manager or owner may take the lead when a company is started and that is when a domain is registered.  My point is, make the right decision when you choose your web host for your domain.

Let’s get to more technical details later.  For now, just consider the following research I have done and concluded about “register.com”:

• They have a Telephone # you can call (toll free, at that).
• They know what they are doing.
• They offer a good IMAP Mail service (great for iPhone) & not all IMAP is created equal
• They set things up for you
• Their web interface for controlling things is excellent (one of the best)
• They have all the standard features you would expect from a good host (Webalyzer, AWStats, PHP, CGI, etc.., + great web browser editing capabilities, backups, you getting the picture?)

We can go into more detail on many of these features after the break.