Autoresponders do not count. Trust us on this one -- although a provider may look good "on paper" as it were, if they're so busy they can't get back to you by the end of their business day (note their time-zone), there's no way they'll be able to give you adequate service, especially if you run into a serious problem. If you only get an answer in the evening or at night it's a good sign that the provider has a "day job" and is a part-timer, making it likely you'll hear back on a question only once in a 24-hour period, because by the time you get the response when you get in to work, your provider has already left for work and will be unavailable until that night. Any host that just sends a price list and does not respond with actual answers should also be dropped from consideration. Only an e-mail before the end of the same business day that answers all of your questions clearly and completely is an acceptable response!

Double-check that the hosts you're researching will allow you the access you need to install and run your forum software. Some providers advertise telnet access but actually offer a control-panel program that doesn't allow access to the command line like a real shell account does. If the provider you're considering says anything about a "control panel," make sure this doesn't cut you off from the command line. Most web conferencing software installations require access to the command line. In addition, command line access is useful for figuring out why the script you just installed won't run when you access it with your browser. You can run it from the command line to see if doing so generates any helpful error messages.

What else should you look for in a host? Do a whois on the hosts and find out how long they've had their websites (the date the record was created). Less than a year? Move on! Find out what kind of hardware your site will be hosted on. 200mhz Pentiums on T-1 lines are a thing of the past, and indicate that the provider is not upgrading hardware frequently enough. Pentium IIs, 400mhz or better on multiple T3 or OC3 lines will probably deliver pages to visitors faster, although an overcrowded server will slow down delivery. Compare the speeds of potential hosts by visiting their websites at the same time of day, one after the next, monitoring the speeds at which their web pages load -- be sure to flush your hard disk and memory caches first so you don't end up loading their pages from your own computer.

Ask what the bandwidth limit is, and how they handle sites that exceed the limit. You don't want to get a large unanticipated bill, or get shut down, because your site is more active than you expected. They should have some system in place to alert you in the event you approach or exceed their limit, and should NOT bill you or shut you down without adequate warning.

Internet Service Providers that offer dial-up access in addition to hosting services will likely be spread too thin to give you adequate support, and you should probably avoid them. Definitely avoid hosts that don't forbid adult sites and spamming -- you don't want to share a server with either type of site. Also avoid any host that requires the use of CGIWrap or other "wrapper" software. About two years ago these programs briefly became quite popular and widespread. They cause all sorts of complications when you try to install and run scripts and programs, and if you move from a service that requires a wrapper to another service that doesn't use a wrapper, or uses a different one, the URL for all your scripts and programs will change -- a potential disaster for your forum.

Trying to choose from among a number of similar packages? Find out how long the hosts you're considering have been in the hosting business, and how many domains they serve. A small number should be a warning that they may be too small to offer adequate support, or too new to have the background necessary to do a good job. Compare their free options. Free use of their certificate for secure orders, the ability to control your own alias files, autoresponders, access to your raw logs and referrer logs, a pre-installed and pre-configured search engine or shopping cart or secure order form may be valuable to you. Good statistical reporting on who is visiting your website, how often, and where they're coming from using host-provided software like Analog or WebTrends is especially useful. Ask if such reporting is included in the cost of your website, and be sure to see a sample stats report if so because the relative usefulness of such reporting software is largely dependant on how the host has set the parameters.

Does your forum program require the use of a daemon running in the background 24 hours a day? Many providers charge extra for this -- ask about daemons in advance if you plan to use such a program. Does the provider you're considering advertise a 24-hour information or tech-support phone number? Check to make sure it's actually staffed by giving them a call on a weekend or late at night, and see what happens. If they don't get back to you within a few hours you can scratch that from their list of useful services.

When you've got it down to a few hosts, contact the Better Business Bureau and Attorney General's Office of Consumer Protection in the hosts' home states to see if there are any complaints on record about their service. Make sure the company you sign up with has been in the hosting business for at least a year. A new business is likely to have few complaints on file with the BBB because they haven't been around that long, and will have less experience and more growing pains. Pains you may end up sharing. Note that appearing to have their own name servers no longer means that hosts actually do: name servers can now be aliased, so you should not use this to see if a host is a reseller.

Instead use TraceRoute to see who is immediately "upstream" of them. Visit the newsgroup and forums mentioned above and ask participants what their experience has been with these hosts. Remember that all forum owners have a bias towards the company that hosts their site even if that host is disliked or unknown elsewhere, and this bias can be reflected forum-wide. Search the web for references to the hosts. Many unhappy former customers of various hosting services have posted web pages describing their experiences.

As you narrow down your search, keep e-mailing the hosts you're considering and see how well they deal with repeated requests for information. The same rule applies here as with the first e-mail: the provider should get back to you by the end of the same business day. And one final caution: NEVER sign up with a provider that requires you to pay for the entire year in advance! That's an eternity on the Web, and you may find you're unhappy with them, or want to relocate to a host that offers a more competitive package. You don't want to get locked into a bad situation. Payment by the quarter is the longest advance payment you should ever consider, and even that's too long for your very first pay period with a new host. We moved our own Musical Instrument Makers Forum six times in our first 18 months online!

Here's a sample letter, similar to one we e-mailed to several dozen providers, as an example of the information you might need from a host you're considering. You can expect answers from one third of the hosts you contact, or less. We know some people have been e-mailing verbatim copies of this sample letter, so we want to let you know that any host that asks, "What's a crontab?" should be removed from consideration. We've been asked that very question by some hosts we were considering, to our great surprise. Any host that doesn't know what this essential Unix tool is, and how to use it, should not be selling themselves as Unix system administrators. You should also look at another sample letter, written by Debbie Gillespie.

Hello Friends, we are looking for a home for our website. We require a 50mb site to start off with.

Here's what we *must* have:
1) Unix server
2) FTP and Telnet access. Note that if you offer any kind of "control panel" program, this *must* allow access to the command line
3) cgi-bin access to run specialty software
4) anonymous FTP access for our members to *both* upload and download contributions to our library
5) daily backups
6) stats reporting with *both* access and referral logs. Please include a URL for a sample of the output provided by your stats program
7) 7/24 tech support, including toll-free telephone support
8) control over our own e-mail alias file
9) free access to your certificate for secure credit card orders
10) ability to run a crontab
11) autoresponder capability
 

And we need to know:
1) if you require the use of CGIWrap or other "wrapper" software on your server
2) if you allow the ability to set up a custom "404: file not found" error page
3) what flavor of Unix you're using
 

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