Read this first before asking for hosting recommendations.

[ATNO/TW]

November 4th, 2004, 10:33 pm

First of all welcome to OZZU and we're glad to have you. I assume many people reading this based on the subject line are probably going to be relatively new here.

Before you post your question for hosting recommendations, please read and consider the following things.

1. Your question has probably already been asked, especially if you are about to ask for recommendations on a free host. If that's the case, please click the search link at the top of any OZZU page and type in "free and hosting" (without the quotes) in the OZZU search and select the hosting board in the dropdown menu. That will give you plenty of reading. This question has been asked hundreds of times here and there's probably thousands of recommendations already here.

2. If you discover a host you are interested in research them.
a. do a whois lookup on them to find out how long they've been around. Whois lookup's are free and a few handy ones are:
geektools.com
samspade.org
nic.com

If the host has only been around for a couple months, you may want to think twice before using them. This is not to say they are bad, it's just that they are new and have no track record. Also look at the administrative contact information. If the administrative and technical contacts are Hotmail or Yahoo or some other generic internet email address, this should be a clue to you. These should not of themselves be determining factors. For example our own supermoderator UNFLUX just started his hosting service in July, however, he had an established development business prior to that and chose to also provide a hosting service recently. I have no doubt that his hosting service is a quality one even though it's only been available a short time.

b. Do a Google search on the host. For example let's take one of the world's largest hosting companies. Type interland into Google. At the moment there are over 243,000 results that you can use to find out more about them. Now type in the one you are considering and compare.

3. Recognize that spammers go to forums like this to spam their services. The ones that are obvious we try to promptly remove. At times though it is impossible to tell the association with the recommended host. However, be smart about it. Look at the profile link for the person making the recomendation. Ask yourself these questions:

How long has this person been at OZZU?
How many posts have they made?
What kind of posts are they making? (In their profile there is a link to view all posts by that user. View and read a little bit of their posting history. Have they been helpful to other members, or are half of the posts that you read including references to the host they are recommending)?
Do they have their own website? If so, are they hosting it on the same host they are recommending to you?

4. Look at their signature. Is the hosting service they are recommending the same as the link in their sig? Guess what -- they either own the site or they are affiliated with it. (that essentially means they are finding ways to make money off of it.)

I hope this helps some of you who are seeking advice on hosting find a more reliable hosting service.

January 31st, 2005, 8:56 pm

In addition to all of the great tips that ATNO gave above, I strongly recommend checking some of the many hosting review sites out there. I wish I had done so with a past host (who actually is a member here at ozzu but I won't point fingers). If I had done so I would have found out that they are not quick to give you a refund, help you out with any non-server issues, or keep your data safe.

A second great tip is to call their technical support and see how long you have to wait on hold, how knowledgable and friendly they are, and whether or not they recommend the host. Often times you will find that a company's own tech support will tell you that the company isn't great!

Do yourself a favor and check up on the company before paying!

[ATNO/TW]

February 1st, 2005, 6:35 am

For the record, I would like to point out that OZZU does have many members who provide outstanding hosting. One bad apple doesn't spoil the bunch.

May 29th, 2005, 7:44 am

is it true that you and BWM own a website company ATNO/TW ?

July 15th, 2005, 10:31 am

Additional links:

http://www.dnsstuff.com
http://www.dnsreport.com - Good for checking your websites performance.

http://www.allwhois.com is also good.

[ATNO/TW]

July 15th, 2005, 11:24 am

Fitness4Living wrote:

is it true that you and BWM own a website company ATNO/TW ?

No, that is not true. Bigweb and I are good friends and assist each other on a variety of things, but we do not own a company together.

April 2nd, 2006, 11:36 am

Truce wrote:

Do yourself a favor and check up on the company before paying!

Hey Baton Rouge, I'm glad I made it!

July 18th, 2006, 5:49 am

i may not agree with the super moderator as regards his first post but it is true that most people recommending you their sites are doing themselves a favor by being heard you can be rest assured that webhoasting and web development are key areas towards getting a best from that company all you need to do is judge if that web site is doing well and leave the rest to the critic chhers

September 13th, 2006, 9:32 pm

Well, I'm the one who is trying to sell Web Hostings. By doing that I have collect about 5 hostings that I am interested in and put them on my web site called My Top 5 Web Hosting which is at:

http://www.s-qs.net/My%20Top%205%20Web%20Hostings.htm

But before launching it, I'm not quite sure that those 5 on my list are really well-known. My someone comment, please

October 27th, 2006, 3:56 pm

i never thought of doing a whois for the sites i saw in the forums. i'm glad i have this. I'm new to this and been reading forums... anyway.. i'm glad you have that link for the unread posts.. it's convenient...

May 20th, 2007, 6:52 am

I seldom did whois search for the sites i saw in the forums. I am glad to have this. I am new to this and been reading forums. I am gload you have that link for the unread posts.

May 4th, 2008, 9:47 am

I have had my site hosted by 81x.com. No idea if they are an Ozzu member or not, I guess there are good and bad ones in both categories.

However, I have had non response issues with them for months, I didn't know about Whois, just went (thank you, I didn't know about that, and I guess I am going to learn a lot more in the next few hours!). Oh, yes, they exist!!! or used to.... The problem is they have been there since 2000 (long time then), but I searched by addresses in Yellow Pages a few months ago, the address they give doesn't correspond to any company, the guy they say as contact answered my call and said it didn't know this person. I contacted their only contact "Communicom" (very nice) who couldn't get in touch with them.....

So whom to trust? whom to believe?

In short, I have to change my host, and have no idea how to do. More reading and learning I assume

May 7th, 2008, 7:46 am

Thanks a lot, quite a useful read, I'd like to fins something similar on choosing a Windows host.