TITLE: How To Choose Your Web Host.

SUMMARY: Simple tips for choosing a web host.

ARTICLE BODY follows:

1. Use a popular web host.

That low-cost one might be an uncommitted reseller. I used one some time ago. Very cheap, and the owner was very helpful. Then my site went 'missing'.

By the grace the good Lord I was able to hunt down the owner, and make a backup, before the service was closed down. I found out later he had only about six customers!

Use a popular web host. Avoid ones that are trying to attract customers by undercutting rates to silly levels. If a deal seems too good to be true, it probably is!

2. Their Google PageRank gives a clue as to how popular they are.

If your site is a serious one, put it on a serious host. Web hosting costs peanuts these days. People can be funny about spending an extra $5 a month.

You'll wish you'd paid $500 when your site goes awol, and you can't get a reply from their technical support.

3. Send them an email or two. See how long it takes to get a reply.

This can be very revealing. If they take two days to get back to a potential customer, how long do they take to answer their existing customers?

4. Check out their forums; how busy are they? They don't have a forum? Next!

They should have enough customers to run a forum, and care enough to have one. Reading it can give you a clue as to what their support is like.

Likewise, see when they had the last news update on their site. If it was long ago, they may be on the way out.

5. Technical Support.

This is as important as the features they supply. It's no good having a Virtual Private Server for $10.00 a month if there's no one there to answer your emails when the hard-disk fails.

6. Features.

Most geeks prefer Unix. It's been around longer, and is more stable. Web hosts offering Unix variants like Linux have always been cheaper. They also seem to offer a wider range of toys.

I need SSI (Server Side Includes), SSH (secure Telnet), 10 MySQL databases, Cpanel, PHPMyAdmin and a UK IP number. And you can get this for $15 a month.

Things like MySQL databases, Cpanel and SSH access are real sticking points for a lot of web hosts. If they're generous with these, you've likely found a home.

7. Word Of Mouth.

Webmasters are always asking about web hosts on webmaster forums. Find a few recent threads, and note who gets the most votes. Search engines, on the other hand, have been spammed by some hosts. If you do a search on 'the best web hosts' or 'top 10 web hosts' you'll get puff pages for gthe same mediocre hosts.

Recent opinions from professional webmasters are the best.

About the author: T. O' Donnell http://www.tigertom.com is an ecommerce consultant in London, UK. His latest project is a freeware loan calculator, available at http://www.tigertom.com/personal-loans-uk.shtml.