By
Dee Brian
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.
Copyright © 2000, all rights reserved. The author of this
article is: Dee Brian. She can be contacted by email at: mailto:dee@usedmice.com,
or by phone at (870) 870-1087.
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