Comments for ShuttleBlog

Comment on Think all web hosting is the same? Part II: 8 Tips for Finding a Good Provider by Kristopher

Kristopher — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 15:16:53 +0000

Think about this: There are roughly 8,760 hours in a year. Most hosts advertise at least 99.9% uptime, which means 0.1% downtime, which is 8.76 hours per year (unless I fail at math). That’s a lot of downtime! If a host isn’t offering at least that much uptime, you should probably stay away.

Comment on Think all web hosting is the same? Part II: 8 Tips for Finding a Good Provider by Kieran

Kieran — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 23:00:59 +0000

Thanks Jamie. You and Josh are correct that most hosting companies make huge claims. I personally believe it is easier to find a good hosting provider than a bad one anymore, so if you’re getting guff, get out. The only reason this article even crossed my mind was in seeing a client have problems with a provider and realizing that “hey, if you don’t know there are better options out there, you don’t know switch.” So many people are content to settle, even when there are better options, and often for less money!

Comment on Think all web hosting is the same? Part II: 8 Tips for Finding a Good Provider by Jamie

Jamie — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 19:55:33 +0000

great post..! very informative, I’ve always had problems with finding a good hosting company. There are so many and they all claim big things.

Thanks for the insight I can hopefully now go conquer the hosting world!

Comment on Think all web hosting is the same? Part II: 8 Tips for Finding a Good Provider by Josh

Josh — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 02:16:19 +0000

I’ve actually wondered about that… I mean, without just bold face lying about it… Where do companies get their statistics on server uptime?

I mean, the vast majority of them advertise 99% uptime! There’s no way that every hosting company out there has that kind of uptime… Otherwise, there’d be no reason to advertise it like it’s a special feature!

Comment on Think all web hosting is the same? Part II: 8 Tips for Finding a Good Provider by Kieran

Kieran — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 01:43:46 +0000

Another excellent point! If the provider is any good, they should be proud to share this information.

Comment on Think all web hosting is the same? Part II: 8 Tips for Finding a Good Provider by Kristopher

Kristopher — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 01:37:09 +0000

Great article, Kieran! One thing I think is worth mentioning is checking into a provider’s downtime history. Almost all advertise 99.9% uptime, but is that true? Some hosting providers have 3rd party uptime monitoring tools setup so you can see an unbiased view of how often their servers go down. It’s definitely worth asking any prospective hosts if they have this information.

Comment on Think all web hosting is the same? Part II: 8 Tips for Finding a Good Provider by Kieran

Kieran — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 01:19:27 +0000

Very good point! That’s a great idea, and well worth the small extra amount of money for one month.

Comment on Think all web hosting is the same? Part II: 8 Tips for Finding a Good Provider by Josh

Josh — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 01:15:42 +0000

You touched on this very briefly, but I think it’s worth noting that even though a company may “offer” a monthly hosting package… Most likely scenario is that the monthly cost is far greater than say an “annual” package… Meaning the majority of people might just go blindly into it to save a buck or two…

I think people should take a minute and think of it like a “test drive” with a car. Pay the monthly fee for the first month… Then use that month to make your decision as to whether you want to settle down with that company, or move on and test drive that Ferrari sitting at the other dealership.

Comment on Think all web hosting is the same? Part II: 8 Tips for Finding a Good Provider by Kieran

Kieran — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 00:17:02 +0000

Glad to hear things are working out! PHP 4 hasn’t been supported by the PHP developers for quite some time, so any host that isn’t actively upgrading past it at this point is going nowhere fast! As for the you not being thrilled with your e-mail situation, the nice thing about keeping e-mail and web hosting services separate is that you can move one without moving the other. If you ever give up on GoogleApps entirely for some reason, you can move along to another provider without worrying about your site.

Comment on Think all web hosting is the same? Part II: 8 Tips for Finding a Good Provider by J. Spencer

J. Spencer — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 23:48:48 +0000

Did you take that PHP4 bit from my experience? I’m happy to say that I left Yahoo! SMB Hosting. While it was a great *value* in terms of money-per-MB Xfer, the technology just couldn’t keep up. They were still running PHP4, with no known upgrade path. Additionally, and in part of the PHP issue, Wordpress installs were painfully slow, and in some cases didn’t even work with certain features or plug-ins.

I’m happy I took your advice to pack up and move on. While GoogleApps is not my ideal choice for email, I am surviving. As for the website and blog, they are thriving at my new host.