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Reliability of Web Hosting Services

The reliability of your web hosting provider should be a constant concern for you. After all, your business website will rely on their good management and maintenance. 99.9% uptime and high performance server and network equipment are two most important factors in selecting good and reliable web host, but is that all?

How can you check you current Web Host’s reliability?

The quickest way is to:

  • Access your host account
  • Find the control panel associated with your account under “server status”
  • You will find a server load value
  • Refresh the page and notice that the value has changed. It is a value that calculates instantly
  • Make note of the values you obtain
  • Log out
  • Go back and repeat this periodically, each time noting the values. You will come to realize which values are the usual ones.

Alternative Way to check:

Other very good way to observe server uptime in over a long period is to purchase a Web Monitoring Services which usually comes as a free services with a web statistics account. This way you can log all the time this server goes down or unavailable. You can monitor if the web services are running on an interval of about 10 minutes. After a period of about one or two months you can easily note the regular server uptime and if you receive something lover than 99.9% then this hosting that you are monitoring is definitely not very reliable!

What Server Load Values mean?

Usually server load values are in x.xx format and this number represents the amount of processes waiting to be executed in the process queue. If the number is small (usually below 1.00) then this means that the server is performing very good and there is no lag when someone is trying to open your web page. We should note that when the server has more than one possessors then the limit value is multiplied by the amount of processors ex. If you have 4 processors then the maximal Server Load value for guaranteed stable work of the web server is 4.00. When this number is larger then the server performance is decreased and possibly not working properly

What to look for when purchasing a website hosting account/services

As a consumer you need to constantly be on the look out for host providers that are simply scam artists. They dazzle you with offerings that seem too good to be true. In most cases, they usually are. Be aware of the following when deciding on a web hosting company.

1. Do you homework

You will stumble upon various different terms and other computer science language specific names, so make your homework and learn what they mean before you do your final choice. We tried to find some of the most common words and give you some easy to understand explanation of what they mean.

Web-space is the amount of storage space that you are purchasing. Usually a normal homepage is about 5 to 10 MB (Mega Bytes) and if you have Picture Gallery then it might grow up to 100 MB. For Business websites with a lot of services the website might grow up to 200 MB but usually they are quite smaller than that. For Electronic Commerce (eCommerce) the requirements are higher but not more than 500 MB. For a eCommerce website with about 200 products the size will be approximately 100 MB which means that more than 500 MB of storage space will not be utilized and will be just a waste of money.

Bandwidth or Transfer is the traffic limitation of your website. This is the total monthly amount of traffic your website is making when your website is visited. Usually you can figure this out by making one simple calculation – multiply the average page size by the number of estimated web visitors each month and you will get your estimated bandwidth needs. Average page size is about 200 kb (kilo bytes) and people visit about 3 to 4 pages on average, which means that you have about 600 to 800 kb. For making this easier we can make it average 1 MB per user per visit. (NOTE if you have a web gallery your average traffic per user per visit should be about 10 MB). If we assume that you will have about 1,000 visits per month for a homepage website, about 3,000 visits for a business website and about 10,000 visits for eCommerce website your traffic requirements will be 1 GB (Giga Bytes) for Homepage, 3 GB for Business website and 10 GB for eCommerce website.

SIZE CHART:
1 MB (Mega Byte) = 1024 KB (Kilo Bytes)
1 GB (Giga Byte) = 1024 (Mega Bytes) = 1024*1024 KB (Kilo Bytes)

LINUX/UNIX or Windows Server Operating System. Those are the two major operating systems for Servers. Some people like Windows but majority of computer science professionals prefer LINUX/UNIX. The most important factor when deciding which operating system you should look for is the purpose/usability of your future website. About 90% of all websites on the internet are hosted on LINUX/UNIX servers due to the high stability and very good security advantages that they give. Most popular Linux systems are Red Hat, NET BSD, FREE BSD, SUN OS, and other not so popular. On the other hand Windows Servers are mostly used when your website is running on ASP .NET technology which is not very popular and is currently being improved. Windows systems are also famous with their enormous security issues and instability and this makes them not preferred for a good Website Hosting System.

PHP is a web scripting/programming language becoming extremely popular nowadays. Because of its incredibly powerful features and functionality it is advisable that you web host is supporting it. Usually all LINUX/UNIX systems are with build-in PHP support but Windows Servers do not necessary come with installed PHP, so if you intend to use PHP it is advisable to get Linux/Unix hosting account. Most beginner websites do not use Server Side Scripting technologies like PHP but eventually when the web page grows up they might need one. Most common PHP functionality is used for Newsletters, Mailing Lists, Shopping Carts, Web Search, and etc.

MySQL is a database engine. This is used for storing information and user input from your website. Most Shopping Carts, Forums, Blogs, Mailing Lists and other require one. It is recommended that you have at least one MySQL database available with your hosting account. You might not need it at the beginning but later on you will definitely put it into good use. Its also advisable that you have more than one database with your account.

MSSQL is the Microsoft version of MySQL. The functionality is the same as MySQL but is only available with Windows Server accounts.

2. Beware of unlimited/unmetered web space/bandwidth/transfer.

Cheap web hosts count on you not using much space or bandwidth, that’s why they feel that they can make the unlimited offer so easily. Once you do start using more space than they expected that you would, they will cancel your account in a heartbeat. So be advised if you are looking for a good, long term relationship with a hosting provider. The British got famous with the saying “I’m not rich enough to by cheap stuff” and that’s so true! Saving few bucks on hosting might make your life a misery and that’s just not worth it!

3. Terms Of Service

Beware of the proverbial terms of service agreement that these hosts have. Important facts on what you can and can’t do on their servers are hidden throughout the confusing text. Some things you thought you could do may turn out to be a misconception on your part. Read these agreements carefully. A good, reliable web host is taking his part in the contract and is guaranteeing quality of service! This mutual contract underlines the responsibilities of your web host and also what you agree to, so if you agree to TOS (Terms of Service) where the web host guarantees only 90% server uptime then if your website in not running for a week or so you don’t have a legal backup to ask your money back.

4. Check what other people say about this hosting company.

If a web host has built a bad reputation for himself, chances are that it is reported somewhere on the web. The Internet has a Better Business Bureau that is always a good source for customers to lodge complaints. Check with them about a particular host that you are interested in. If they have complaints against this host on file, they will tell you. Don’t stop there though. Check several more sources such as web host directories or search by specific host. Go to webhostingtalk.com and leave a post asking for opinions on this host. Past customers good and bad may respond to you and give you a better idea of the reputation of this host. Another source to check out is newsgroups. Simply search on your hosts name, but take the information that you find with objectivity as it is possible that the negativity that could be posted there may in fact come from other web hosts looking to disparage a reputation.

I hope this information will help you make a good choice on reliable web hosting provider. If you would like to try our services check out the Psionic-Studios Web Hosting Services for a list of competitive prices on reliable web hosting.


Article by Venetsian Jakimov
M.S. in Computer Science and B.S. in Network Engineering.
A long time web developer and owner of Psionic-Studios, LLC

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