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Pre Sales Web Hosting Questions
Hosting companies operating in the U.S. are feeling pretty confident
about their business outlook in the year 2004. The recovery in the
global hosting industry is charging and there is a wide spread
confidence in the present internet connection. One of the reason for the
upbeat mood is the growing confidence among foreign web users in the
operation of the U.S's data center. Thousands of web users are relying
hosting companies in the U.S. to provide the level of hosting excellence
required to run their websites with minimal interruption. Nevertheless,
hosting plan on the web are getting very competitive and features of
each plan is comparatively the same among web hosting providers. Whether
novice or expert, you can find some useful information in this article
to learn about some of the considerations to look at when you choose a
web hosting service.
So how do you ensure you get what you ask for or if you are a beginner,
how do you choose which hosting companies to sign up?
Take advantage of your customer rights. Here is a set of questions that
you can ask before you sign up with any host. If there is any
information that is not shown on host's website, remember to ask and get
clarification.
General Questions
1) May I know the founder's name and a brief history of his business
engagements?
2) How long has your company been operating to provide hosting services?
3) How many sites have you hosted?
4) Could you please send some URL of your customer's website? I would
like to determine the web page loading time.
Network and Internet Connection Questions
1) Is your data center equipped with redundant network equipments, power
grid or storage device?
2) Which Internet backbone carrier are you connected with?
3) I am very interested to host my website on your servers, but my main
concern is my website's uptime. I would be glad if you can briefly
explain how you manage your servers and network in terms of speed,
reliability and bandwidth allocation?
4) How fast is your network, and what is your uptime guarantee for this
plan?
Security Systems Questions
1) If I were to host my website with you, how do you protect my website
from spamming, viruses and hijacking?
2) How do you secure your web servers physically?
3) Do you use any firewall systems?
4) Do you monitor site security 24 hours a day?
Web Servers Questions
1) Which brand of server do you use?
2) Do you use a high-speed SCSI disk drives on the web server for this
plan I intend to host?
3) How many sites do you host per web server for this plan?
4) Is your database server on an independent server?
Plan/Package Issues
1) What is the rate for additional disk space?
2) Can I switch to other hosting plan once I sign up this plan?
3) Could you please let me know all the versions of the software
included in this plan?
4) Do you charge additional fees for hosting a secure web site for this
plan?
5) Can I install additional components and third party software?
Domain Registration and Transfer Issues
1) I don't wish to order the hosting plan yet, however can I park my
domain name on your web server before I order?
2) I am ready to activate the hosting plan. Can you transfer my domain
name to your host?
3) I am ready to activate the hosting plan. How do I transfer my website
content to your host?
4) I am ready to transfer my website to your web server. How do you make
sure there is no interruption during the transfer?
5) How much do you charge for a domain pointer?
Reseller Questions
1) Do you provide reseller service? If the answer is yes, am I qualify
as a reseller by purchasing this hosting plan?
2) Is there any special incentive as a reseller?
3) Do you provide tools to keep your company anonymous to my customers?
Technical Support Handling
1) How long does it take for you to answer support requests?
2) How do you handle technical support?
Billing Management
1) Do you provide 30-day money back guarantee? If the answer is yes, how
does your 30-day money back guarantee work?
2) If I want to cancel my hosting account, how long will it take?
3) If my hosting account is suspended, how long does it take to restore
it?
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