Thread: Be wary about web hosting

I think I been around the block when it comes to webhosting and I thought I give some tips for those looking for web hosts.

• Unlimited never means unlimited

This is probably one of the biggest gimmicks in webhosting today. If you use common sense, do you really think they are going to let you use unlimited amount of space? Same goes for bandwidth. Unlimited webspace is impossible and should not be used as a deciding factor. Unlimited bandwidth is also impossible. Most of the time there are heavy restriction on CPU per account. Since more bandwidth = more users and more users = more CPU, it is easy to see why they say unlimited bandwidth.

• Never register a domain with your web host.

Though this varies, it best to use a third party to register you domain name. If for some reason you need to change host (trust me, it happens) it would be a pain to transfer domains.

• Always look for reviews.

One of the biggest problem with getting a web host is realizing that it sucks. For instance, this site was hosted on Fatcow, one of the crappiest webhost ever, and it sucks. 5-10% of the time the site was down, and yes this is very bad.

• Start small.

Don't start with a full website right away. Start with a free hosted blog, such as wordpress.com or blogger.com and then start moving up.

forgive my ignorance but what do you mean by registering a domain using your web host?

Domain is your website address your web hoster is whoever you pay to run your site on the internet. In case you change who host's your site you should register the address separately from where you have your site