Generous host: hosting usa reviews

Recently I had to switch a hosting company once again. The server went down and all of my websites were inaccessible for over 24 hours. And that was unexpected. I received no explanation of any kind from the other end. I was trying my luck with a small hosting company for a change. Unfortunately there is no such thing as "status quo". Everything changes. So I did a little checking and talked to the best hosting companies. The moving can be a pain so I asked all the bad questions that are normally omitted. The results are presented here on a few pages. The criteria I was using for hosting usa reviews are outlined below and the hosting usa companies that were worth the pain writing the reviews are on the following pages.

Technical And Customer Support

Does its technical support function 24 hours a day, 7 days a week (24/7), all year around? You should not accept a host which does not have staff working on weekends or public holidays. You will be surprised at how often things go wrong at the most inconvenient of times. Incidentally, just because a host advertises that it has 24/7 support does not necessarily mean that it really has that kind of support. Trust me, if you need help after normal business hours, you don’t want to get a voice mail message telling you to wait until the next morning.

If you are going to be working on your site after hours or on weekends, you need to make sure you can reach customer support then. And this doesn't just mean firing off an e-mail – you want a response sometime within a couple of hours (sooner if possible). See what the hosting usa providers say, then test it yourself. Try to open a live chat on a Saturday, or pick up the phone one evening. A top web hosting usa company will live up to its promises.

Test them out by emailing at midnight and on Saturday nights, Sunday mornings, etc. Check how fast they answer, how friendly they are and what degree of technical knowledge the operators have. If a company has a poor customer care department to begin with its very likely that other parts of the business will have the same performance.

Guaranteed Up-Time

Most Web hosting companies guarantee 99.9% server up-time, however, if they do not live up to their promise, don’t expect to be compensated for anything more than your hosting fee for the month. It’s not much if your site makes big bucks, or otherwise very important to you, but it’s at least some incentive to keep the servers in good shape. Look for a host with 99.9% up-time guarantee. No hosting usa company can guarantee 100% up-time. If they do, they are lying.

Read the terms of the up-time guarantee to find out what types of downtime are not included in the guarantee. Most hosting companies exclude maintenance and other items which makes the 99.9% up-time less meaningful.

Security

Do the web hosting providers have their own data centres or do they lease them from somewhere else? In either case, are the servers monitored around the clock? Is there backup power in case of an outage? Is your data safe with them? Are there firewalls in place? Secure web hosting is very important these days, for your benefit and that of your business.

A Good Backup Strategy

You should keep a copy of your site on your local computer for backup, but with dynamic, ever changing sites, it could be cumbersome to keep a local backup constantly up to date. Therefore, make sure the hosting company you choose backs up their servers at least once a week.

Speed

Test the speed of a host's network to your location by clicking start > run > type in "command" enter, and then type "ping hostdomainname.com" wait for it to finish and look for the average ping. The lower the number the better, faster your site will load up. Any number averaging around an 80 would be good. Anything over 100 is very bad except, of course, if the host is based in another country.

Your Free Domain Name

An important part of launching your site is selecting a domain name. It should be easy for you and your clients/site visitors to remember. Once you find a domain name that is available and that you like, you want to be able to keep it – even if you change your web hosting one day.

Be careful with hosts that include a free domain name with their hosting package unless you are certain they will be putting your information in WHOIS. Whoever has their information in WHOIS is the owner, not the one who paid for it. Make sure this is an option. As time goes on your domain name might cost a couple times more then all the money you ever paid for your hosting plans all put together. Well managed online property does not come cheap.

Multiple Domain Hosting and Subdomains

Today is a must. If it is not included. That host provider is the past. Do not even start considering.

Data Transfer (Traffic/Bandwidth)

The first law of economics states that there is not enough resourses for everyone on the planet. The hosting is not an exception.

Data transfer (sometimes loosely referred to as "traffic" or "bandwidth") is the amount of bytes transferred from your site to visitors when they browse your site. A commercial web host that advertises "unlimited bandwidth" is telling the truth. But there are other metrics to the working server. Such as memory (RAM) and processor (CPU). Your share the server with other lucky businesses and the resourses of the server is divided among all of you. Sometimes it gets crowded. Plus the hosting provider has to pay for the bandwidth, and you cannot expect to have whole server running just for you from 3 to 7 bucks a month. In this case unlimited means a lot but anyway limited to certain statistics and numbers. When choising a hosting provider you have to be very specific about your needs and your future plans. If you want to play hard ball you have to make sure that you have options of going up the plan ledder and upgrading your account if the need will arise. IXWebHosting is a good example of that. You can start with regular hosting plan. Then move on to business plans and later if you need it you can get your own VPS (virtual private server).

There are great chances that your website/s will never be able to use that amount given as unlimited.

Disk Space

Same logic applies to unlimited disk space. Most web sites need less than 10 MB. Every hosting provider with unlimited disk space has an abuse policy that satates that you cannot store movies, mp3 and the likes on your hosting. So you will never be able to use the unlimited but policy bound space. Hosting companies very well aware of that fact and that is why they feel comfortable to offer you unlimites space in the first place.

Tools, SSL (Secure Server), Shopping Cart

While there is plenty of excellent open-source software available today, itis a big plus if your web host supports them and does not charge for that. Top web hosting companies will give all that you might possibly need to build and maintain your site in good shape. Make sure that control panel is easy to use (watch a demo first, if available) and have or supports multi-media or e-commerce functions that you want right now or might need in the future. If you are planning on doing any sort of business through your website, you might want to check if the host provides these options. You will definitely need SSL and shopping cart if you want to collect credit card payments on your site.

Email Accounts, Autoresponders, POP3, Mail Forwarding

If you have your own site, you would probably want to have email addresses at your own domain, like sales@yourdomain.com, etc. Does it allow you to have a catch-all email account that catches any email addressed to any of your domain extensions? Will you have autoresponders? Can you retrieve your mail with your email software? Can it be automatically forwarded to your current email address?
Get e-mail through the domain name of your website. It's advised not to go with a host provider that does not have unlimited autoresponders, pop mailboxes, email aliases etc. These services are needed to stay in touch with your visitors, potential customers. Using your_name@your_website_name.com also more professional and official and good for business.

Control Panel

Do they have cPanel, ispCP or ISPConfig with a system that will let you set up your own blog or forum with a few clicks? cPanel, ispCP or ISPConfig, like others, are just the systems that let users access the files and website without knowing how to use ftp - file transfer protocol. Make sure you like it.

Site Builder

Do they have an easy site builder system if you don't know any programming or anything about making websites or you just want to save time and avoid trouble? Most do these days. But be aware that most Site Builders provided by hosting companies are proprietary. They often work only on that hosting company's servers. If so, your site cannot be moved to another host without rebuilding from scratch.

Price

Find out if there are any extra costs for things like set up, maintenance, e-commerce, extra email address or technical support. Web hosting providers should be up front about all of these. Of course, depending on your website's purposes and your own needs, you may have other questions you need answered, regarding search engine optimization, marketing and design services, and much more.

Saving Money

Signing on for multiple years with web hosting providers gives you some savings, so you may decide to do this. However, in all cases, make sure you know the cancellation policy. Is there a money-back guarantee? The hosting providers recommeded on the next pages offer 30 dyas money back garantee plus anytime you want to leave you get the money back for the rest of the months you paid upfront. No hard feelings.

Payment Plans And Money Back Guarantee

You should be able to test drive your account and the host’s reliability for at least a month, and if you don’t like it, get all your money back. This is a must. Because you do not actually know what server will host your sites and files. Sometimes you get lucky and sometimes you do not even with the best hosting companies.

All the information and check list given on the lest increases your chances of finding your best hosting provider significantly. Let's jump to reviews. I am trying out other hosting providers big and small at the moment so the update is upcoming in the nearest future.