Web hosting requirements at a hosting company

Amid all of the marketing material on your potential host's website there is usually some fine print (or worse yet, some things aren't even mentioned publicly) concerning the rules they impose on themselves and customers. You need to make sure the host's rules don't interfere with your current and future plans for your website.

• What sort of hardware do you use for your servers? Ideally, fast dual processors and at least 2 GB of RAM are what you are looking for.

• How many accounts do you generally place on a shared hosting server before you consider it full? Many hosts won't be able to quote an exact number, but you are looking for an honest ballpark figure. If they tell you they don't put more than 10 accounts on a shared server and you see their average account costs about $5 a month then clearly the host isn't telling you the truth. A ballpark figure of 100-200 accounts per server on fast hardware is OK. If they use single Celeron CPU servers with 512 MB of RAM, then 20-30 accounts would be OK.

• Do you offer a money-back guarantee? If so, how long do I have before the guarantee expires? A good host should have at least a 14-day money-back guarantee so if you find that this host isn't the right one for your needs you can move on to another host without wasting money. Ideally, they should offer a full 1-month guarantee.

• If I pre-pay for a year and then need to cancel my account half-way through the year, how do you handle that? What if I want to upgrade my plan in the middle of this term? Many hosts offer a discount if you pre-pay for a full year of service in advance. The host should always offer to refund any full months of unused service on a pro-rated basis. An example of a pro-rated refund: You buy a year of hosting for 100 USD and have used 3 months and cancel your account, the host should give you back approximately 75 USD (100 USD minus three months of service at 8.33 USD a month, 75.01 USD). Note that not all hosts offer pro-rated refunds (or even offer refunds at all). Hosts can handle upgrades in several ways, but always be sure you are getting your money's worth.

• Do you have any uptime guarantee? If so, how does the guarantee work? Many hosts claim to offer 99.9% or greater uptime, but you may find that a host can't live up to that promise. If your site is unavailable for more than approximately 44 minutes in a given month through no fault of your own you may be due some recompense. You should find out what your host will do in such cases. Make a note of any limitations on the guarantee. For example, your host might only guarantee the data center in which the server is located will be up 99.9% each month and not your particular server. If you have a good host they will always try to make things right for their clients after an excessive amount of unplanned downtime without being prodded. Since the host has a business to run don't expect a free month of hosting every time your site is only available 99.8% that month, but they should always offer some sort of recompense.

• What happens if I use more bandwidth than my plan allows? cPanel hosts should tell you that your account will be suspended if you go over your bandwidth limit until you either buy extra bandwidth or the first of the next calendar month rolls around. Do not buy hosting from any company that says they automatically charge your credit card for every extra GB of bandwidth you use. While this might seem like a nice feature, it is very dangerous. All it takes is a mention of your website on another major site or in the news and you could find yourself with a bandwidth bill of thousands of dollars.

• What sort of content do you allow on your servers? Some hosts do not allow certain kinds of content on their servers and you should know what the restrictions are before you sign up. Some hosts do not allow adult hosting or IRC servers, for example. Further, some place restrictions on the types of media you can host. If you want to host your band's website and your host does not permit hosting of music or video files, you may want to look elsewhere.

If your potential web host answers too many questions in an unsatisfactory way, you probably should move on to evaluating the next host on your list. It is important to always be sure to look for and read the Terms of Service or Acceptable Use policies of any host you are interested in. If you cannot find these legal documents be sure to ask about them. These items may be dry or a difficult read but failing to read them can lead to nasty surprises later.