WebMastersLoom

If there is one thing we have all suffered through is waiting for a site to download online. It seems like it is the worse thing in the world and will never end. We actually either click off of the site or after the initial download of the frontpage completes, we then click off of the site because the subpages take too long to load. We have all been here and this article is to help make sure your visitors don’t go through it as well.

The reason why a websites speed of download is important is actually very simple and we have broken it down into two parts:

1. The first part is that people want to get to where they are going quickly. This is pretty straight forward and now a days no one seems to have the time to wait for a site to download(no matter how important it is).
2. The second part is to deliver the content to the user as quick as possible so that we can keep them interested and entertained. The quicker they can get to the information the more they will click around your site and the more they will interact with your website. This is extremely important if your website has it’s own estore, as the more products your visitors are able to view then the more time they spend in your store and the better the chance you have of them purchasing something off of you. Pretty simple and straight forward.

Now you may be wondering how you can take your current design or your re-design and improve the performance of your website so it doesn’t take forever for it to download. The truth is that it isn’t too complex and actually anyone can follow these steps. Here are some tips on how to get your website to load faster and why these factors may cause long load times:

1. Tip one is to use regular html text instead of graphic text(such as exporting text from a program like fireworks or photoshop). The reason for this is that html text carries alot smaller kbs size when added to website design. So anywhere that you use regular text instead of “graphical text” will really help decrease your page size making the download time quicker for each user.
2. Tip two is to limit other graphics uses on your website where you can. Some things such as using a graphic for your logo can not be avoided but try to make an effort to limit the amount of graphics on each page. The more graphics you use the higher your page size will be and the more time it takes to download it. Really graphic intensive websites can have users waiting a while for everything to download. Some occasions where it might be ok to use graphics is if they will also be used on subpages. These graphics will already be cached on your visitors computers and will not have to be downloaded again when a person visits your subpages.
3. Tip three is to limit the use of flash. It can make your page take even longer to load as the kbs size of each file are usually quite larger then any graphics on your website. This can really increase download times and in alot of cases is not necessary.
4. The final tip is to try not to nest tables inside of each other. Try to break down your design and use multiple tables. This way each table will load separately giving your visitors something to view while the rest of your site loads. If you load everything into one table then they will have to wait for the whole main table to load.

Remember the key is to get your users to the information as fast as possible. If you follow this advice and apply these rules to your site, then there is nothing saying you can’t have a quick loading and great looking website as well.

ActiveX uses an interesting method for enforcing security … it doesn’t. Well, that’s not exactly true. What happens is when a web page requests an ActiveX control the browser determines if that control is already loaded onto your system. If it is the ActiveX control is executed. If not, the user is asked if it is okay to install the control. Additional information about where the control came from and it’s security implications is also included.

The theory behind this security model is the user knows what’s best for his system. In my humble opinion, this is pure hogwash (a stronger expletive came to mind but this is a family site). Is your average web surfer really knowledgeable enough to make a decision like this? Look at it this way, by installing an ActiveX control you are assuming it is secure, won’t damage your system and is bug-free. You are basically trusting completely the company which created the control, the developers and the people distributing the image.

Yes there are security certificates involved, but those are relatively easy to get. Also remember how many security problems have been reported involving ActiveX controls.

I don’t know about you, but when I get that little box stating a site wants to install an ActiveX control, my first impulse is to hit the NO box, quickly followed by the BACK key. This may seem a bit paranoid, but I use my computer all day long and I depend upon it for business and pleasure. Why would I want to put it at any risk for some silly little ActiveX control? The web is a huge place and there are plenty of other sites to look at.

My advice to anyone is generally don’t allow ActiveX controls to be installed from anywhere except for really big sites like Microsoft. It’s just too difficult to judge how safe or unsafe the control happens to be.

How is this different from Java? Well, Java has an entirely different security model which does not make the assumption that the user has been educated about the specific Java applet. Java sets specific rules to what an applet can and cannot do, and generally these rules do an excellent job of preventing damage to a system (there have been bugs but no where near as many as with ActiveX).

On top of the security concerns, ActiveX only works in Internet Explorer. Yes, I know there is a plug in for Netscape but it’s slow and not very usable. Besides, most Netscape users don’t have it installed. If you are designing a web site, please consider this very carefully. If you include ActiveX controls you are losing as many as 50 percent of your visitors. Perhaps more, depending upon your market. Is any functionality that you might gain worth that cost?

Of course, if you are creating an Intranet (a web local to a company) then by all means use all of the ActiveX controls that you want. In this case, you have far more control over the user environment that you have on the web.

The Basics of Linux & Windows :

Linux (and its close relation Unix) and Windows 2000 (and its close cousin Windows NT) are types of software (known as operating systems) that web servers use to do the kind of things that web servers do. You do not need to know any real detail of either to make a decision as to which you need but here a few guidelines.

Just because you use a windows desktop PC doesn’t mean you have to opt for Windows web hosting (and the reverse is true as well). The operating system you use on your desktop has little to do with your choice of web hosts. As long as you understand how to use your FTP or web publishing software, your can use either operating system.

But what is important is that you know what you want your website to do and what you want to offer on it. This is what will ultimately help determine the type of web hosting that will work best for you. As mentioned earlier, interactive websites usually rely on ASP, PHP, or Perl type languages.

Linux Web Hosting or Windows 2000 Web Hosting ? Make your Choice !

When it comes to Web hosting, Linux has, for some time, been widely considered the best OS for Web servers. It’s typically found to be the most reliable, stable and efficient system and, as such, it’s commonly used for the demanding environment of Web and mail servers. Indeed,Most of the clients websites of aalpha NET runs on the Linux OS precisely because of this traditional stability.

The million-dollar question is what application are you looking to use for your hosting? Consider the tools and scripting languages you plan to use – if you use PHP, Perl or MySQL, Linux is the way forward. If apps are Microsoft-specific, then Windows is what you need.

If your site, like most web sites, is what might be termed “brochure-ware” then Linux servers are ideal. By brochure-ware I mean a site that offers the kind of information that in the past might have been provided on paper in the form of brochures, newsletters or data sheets. Brochure-ware sites will offer some interaction through enquiry forms and can certainly incorporate online purchasing and other routine e-commerce functions.

If however your site incorporates an online searchable database or interactive chat facilities then Windows 2000 or NT will be a better bet in most cases. It will cost a bit more but you’ll get that back in reduced development time and simply better functionality.

The following are the advantages of using Linux based web server compared to Windows based web server :

Stable: Linux/Unix operating systems has traditionally been believed to be very stable and robust. A web site housed on a Linux operating system will have very high up-time (of the order of 99.9%). Of course, other factors such as power supply, network admin skills, and network load etc. also matter when it comes to maintaining the system uptime.

Low cost of ownership: The Linux OS comes free of cost (or at very insignificant cost, usually cost of distribution). Also, it has full fledged server, and desk top applications that comes free along with the OS. These server applications (such as FTP, Web Server, DNS Server, File Server etc.) being free, are also very stable.

Ease of use : When it comes to web hosting, it is easy to host on Linux web servers. The process of uploading and hosting is almost same for both Linux and Windows web servers. If you want to use a Windows based tool such as Front Page for uploading a web site on to a Linux based web server, make sure that the Front Page extensions are enabled. This is only required if you are uploading using HTTP feature (http://www.yourwebsite.com) of Front Page. Front Page also makes it possible to upload a web site using FTP. You need to select ftp://www.yourwebsite.com for up loading using front page FTP option. Note that if you select “Front Page Extensions” during web site design, you must enable Front Page extensions on a Linux web server also. These days, all Linux web servers are coming with installable Front Page extensions, and this should pose no problem for hosting on a Linux platform.

You can use almost all types of file extensions (or scripts) when using Linux web server. Commonly, the following extensions are supported:

Basically it means that you can host web sites that use different types of server side scripts including .cgi, .pl, .php, and .asp (with plug-in).

Easy to move between hosts : A web site designed to be hosted on a Linux based web server can be hosted on a Windows web server easily, where as the reverse is not always true.

Most widely used : Linux/Unix based web hosting is most widely used compared to Windows based web hosting.

Scalability : A web site is dynamic. Usually, a web site starts with a few pages of html and grows over a period of time to suit the customers requirements. It is preferable to design a web site keeping this requirements in mind. A web site designed for compatibility with a Linux/Unix based web server meets the scalability requirement easily without making any site wide design changes.

On the downside, Linux based web server is not fully compatible with Microsoft technologies. If you are using any specialized applications or VB for development of your web site, it is preferable to host with a Windows based web server.

However if you are not sure then email me or call Teeyes Siva on 00 91 452 3105858 and I’ll help you decide by talking through the issues.

“Mirror mirror on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all?” I’m going to bet that it’s not you, um I mean, not your website. With all of the new websites popping up all over the place how do you know where you rank? How popular is your site compared to the next one?

In most cases it’s safe to say that we all want our website to be popular. Maybe it means our business will be more profitable or maybe it’s just good for the ego. Now there is a website that ranks the popularity of your website. The website is http://www.alexa.com.

Alexa.com is a blast to use and is one of those websites that is hard to leave. For starters, Alexa.com lists the most popular websites starting from the #1 position. It also lists the “Movers And Shakers”, which are websites that are rapidly gaining or loosing popularity on the web. Alexa.com is a great tool for discovering new websites to visit because you can see where everybody else is going. It’s fun, informative, and can be a good tool for comparing your website to the competition.

So how does Alexa.com work? In 1997 Alexa.com created a tool bar that tracked which websites people visited on the web. The tool bar was incorporated into early versions of NetScape and Internet Explorer. Today there are over 10 million Internet users who browse the Internet while using some form of the Alexa.com tool bar. These users are constantly generating statistics about their browsing habits. Alexa.com uses the data to create reports that outline the popularity of websites on the Internet.

So the next time you want to see how popular your website is, visit Alexa.com. Simply type in your website’s address (www.yoursite.com) into the “search the web” box and press go. It will send you to a page full of statistics showing you how popular your website is right now. Just remember that being popular isn’t the only important thing in life. There are good looks, money, and Monday Night Football too.

So you want to publish a web site do you? Welcome to the club. These days it seems that almost everyone has a web site of some kind, and thousands more continue to be launched every day. It’s challenging enough to design a site and fill it with interesting content, but when all is said and done another challenge still remains - where to host it?

A popular choice for newbie webmasters, and even experienced ones, is to secure a free hosting plan with a company such as Yahoo! Geocities, Tripod or Angelfire. While these are easy to setup and free of charge, they do have limitations. Most free hosts don’t offer all the nice features that paid hosts do such as FTP access, CGI-BIN, or your own personal domain name. Instead you’re stuck with minimal features and a generic URL such as www.freewebhost.com/marcswebsite. This somewhat limits your web site‘s potential. Most free hosts also require you to run banners or pop-up ads on your web site to make it worth their while - these banners and pop-ups can obstruct the view of your web page and ultimately annoy visitors and drive them away. Lastly, most free hosts have a daily bandwidth limit that is very small, so if you do get a lot of traffic you’ll most likely exceed the allotted bandwidth and your site will be temporarily disabled. Overall I would recommend free web hosts for people that are new to web hosting and want to get a feel for how it works. I’d also recommend them for web sites that are personal in nature (such as an online journal) as well as web sites that don’t plan to generate any revenue. Free web hosts are a great stepping stone to paid web hosts - I myself starting building web sites 4 years ago using free hosts, and today I run several high traffic web sites that are hosted on paid web hosting plans.

Now it’s time to get into the good stuff - paid web hosting. Web hosting companies that charge money for their services are plentiful on the Internet, and feature a wide array of hosting packages at various price points. First we begin with so called “budget” web hosts, who claim to offer you the world for only $1 per month. Having used numerous such companies I feel I must tell you to proceed with caution here, as these companies aren’t all that they are cracked up to be. Many claim to offer 24/7 e-mail support, which in my experience turned out to be 0/0 e-mail support. My e-mails were either never answered or answered a week after I sent them. Even when I got a response it was generic in nature and completely unhelpful. Also, expect frequent outages with these budget web hosts as they rarely even have their own web servers - often they are reselling space on someone else’s web servers over which they have no control. One budget web host I used went down unexpectedly for 6 days, and they didn‘t even bother to notify their customers. As a result, my web site was down for 6 days and I lost most of my visitors as well as my hard-earned search engine rankings. Lesson learned: if the reliability and success of your web site is important to you, budget web hosting might not be the answer. However, this is not to say that all budget web hosts are bad - 1dollarhosting.com is one of the leaders in the budget web hosting arena and has quite a good reputation.

The next type of paid web host is what I refer to as a “mid-range” web host, meaning that they offer prices and service that will satisfy the majority of web sites out there. Mid-range web hosts like PowWeb, Your-Site.com and iPowerWeb offer packages ranging from $5 to $8 per month and provide the tools that most webmasters will need to run a web site, such as: CGI-BIN, tons of e-mail addresses, FTP support, visitor statistics and more. These hosts do have monthly bandwidth limits, but the limits are quite high, and most web sites will never reach them. However, if your web site features hundreds of file downloads and gets decent traffic you may be shocked at how soon you’ll reach those bandwidth limits. When you do, your site may be temporarily shut down or you’ll have to pay bandwidth overage charges, which can get pricey. Overall though, mid-range web hosts will be satisfactory for 90% of the web sites out there, and generally offer excellent uptime/reliability. In fact, many web-based businesses are successfully run using a mid-range web host. However, as mentioned previously, web sites that offer large files for download or sites that get a huge amount of traffic may find that a mid-range host doesn’t quite suit their needs. These types of web sites may require “high-end” web hosting solutions, the next topic in our discussion.

High-end web hosts typically service web sites that are extremely popular, have a high amount of traffic, and/or require pretty much 100% uptime. Most businesses rely on high-end web hosts to host their web sites. Rackspace.com is an example of a well known high-end web hosting company. Pricing for high-end hosts varies, but typically runs from about $50 per month to several hundred dollars per month. Many high-end hosts give you your own dedicated server (which they support) that is reserved just for you and your web site. The mid-range hosts I discussed earlier typically host many different web sites on the same server - this is known as “shared” hosting. High-end web hosts offer stellar reliability, bandwidth, and just about every tool you’ll ever need to run a successful web site. Another feature that some high-end web hosts provide is “co-location” hosting. In this scenario, YOU configure and provide the web server, but you get to plug it into their data center/network. This can be very nice because their data center usually has a fiber-optic connection directly to the Internet, offering blazing bandwidth and stellar reliability. People who run web-based businesses or extremely popular, high traffic web sites are good candidates for high-end web hosting.

Hopefully this brief overview gives you a good picture of the various types of web hosts that exist, and which one might be right for you. When you begin your search for a web host, always keep in mind the old adage “You get what you pay for” because it really does hold true in this case. Before you make the commitment to host a web site be sure to take some time and analyze what you want out of the web site, and decide which factors are most important to its success. Answering these questions will get you many steps closer to choosing the web host that’s right for you.

There are many different traffic analysis tools, ranging from simple counters to complete traffic analyzers. Although there are some free ones, most of them come with a price tag. Why not do it yourself? With PHP, you can easily create a log file within minutes. In this article I will show you how!

Getting the information

The most important part is getting the information from your visitor. Thankfully, this is extremely easy to do in PHP (or any other scripting language for that matter). PHP has a special global variable called $_SERVER which contains several environment variables, including information about your visitor. To get all the information you want, simply use the following code:

// Getting the information
$ipaddress = $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'];
$page = "http://{$_SERVER['HTTP_HOST']}{$_SERVER['PHP_SELF']}";
$page .= iif(!empty($_SERVER['QUERY_STRING']), "?{$_SERVER['QUERY_STRING']}", "");
$referrer = $_SERVER['HTTP_REFERER'];
$datetime = mktime();
$useragent = $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'];
$remotehost = @getHostByAddr($ipaddress);

As you can see the majority of information comes from the $_SERVER variable. The mktime() (http://nl2.php.net/mktime) and getHostByAddr() (http://nl2.php.net/manual/en/function.gethostbyaddr.php) functions are used to get additional information about the visitor.

Note: I used a function in the above example called iif(). You can get this function at http://www.phpit.net/code/iif-function.

Logging the information

Now that you have all the information you need, it must be written to a log file so you can later look at it, and create useful graphs and charts. To do this you need a few simple PHP function, like fopen (http://www.php.net/fopen) and fwrite (http://www.php.net/fwrite).

The below code will first create a complete line out of all the information. Then it will open the log file in “Append” mode, and if it doesn’t exist yet, create it.

If no errors have occurred, it will write the new logline to the log file, at the bottom, and finally close the log file again.

// Create log line
$logline = $ipaddress . '|' . $referrer . '|' . $datetime . '|' . $useragent . '|' . $remotehost . '|' . $page . "\n";

// Write to log file:
$logfile = '/some/path/to/your/logfile.txt';

// Open the log file in "Append" mode
if (!$handle = fopen($logfile, 'a+')) {
	die("Failed to open log file");
}

// Write $logline to our logfile.
if (fwrite($handle, $logline) === FALSE) {
	die("Failed to write to log file");
}

fclose($handle);

Now you’ve got a fully function logging module. To start tracking visitors on your website simply include the logging module into your pages with the include() function (http://www.php.net/include):

include ('log.php');

Okay, now I want to view my log file

After a while you’ll probably want to view your log file. You can easily do so by simply using a standard text editor (like Notepad on Windows) to open the log file, but this is far from desired, because it’s in a hard-to-read format.

Let’s use PHP to generate useful overviews for is. The first thing that needs to be done is get the contents from the log file in a variable, like so:

// Open log file
$logfile = "/some/path/to/your/logfile.txt";

if (file_exists($logfile)) {

	$handle = fopen($logfile, "r");
	$log = fread($handle, filesize($logfile));
	fclose($handle);
} else {
	die ("The log file doesn't exist!");
}

Now that the log file is in a variable, it’s best if each logline is in a separate variable. We can do this using the explode() function (http://www.php.net/explode), like so:

// Seperate each logline
$log = explode("\n", trim($log));

After that it may be useful to get each part of each logline in a separate variable. This can be done by looping through each logline, and using explode again:

// Seperate each part in each logline
for ($i = 0; $i < count($log); $i++) {
	$log[$i] = trim($log[$i]);
	$log[$i] = explode('|', $log[$i]);
}

Now the complete log file has been parsed, and we’re ready to start generating some interesting stuff.

The first thing that is very easy to do is getting the number of pageviews. Simply use count() (http://www.phpit.net/count) on the $log array, and there you have it;

echo count($log) . " people have visited this website.";

You can also generate a complete overview of your log file, using a simple foreach loop and tables. For example:

// Show a table of the logfile
echo '<table>';
echo '<th>IP Address</th>';
echo '<th>Referrer</th>';
echo '<th>Date</th>';
echo '<th>Useragent</th>';
echo '<th>Remote Host</th>';

foreach ($log as $logline) {
	echo '<tr>';

	echo '<td>' . $logline['0'] . '</td>';
	echo '<td>' . urldecode($logline['1']) . '</td>';
	echo '<td>' . date('d/m/Y', $logline['2']) . '</td>';
	echo '<td>' . $logline['3'] . '</td>';
	echo '<td>' . $logline['4'] . '</td>';

	echo '</tr>';

}

echo '</table>';

You can also use custom functions to filter out search engines and crawlers. Or create graphs using PHP/SWF Charts (http://www.maani.us/charts/index.php). The possibilities are endless, and you can do all kinds of things!

In Conclusion…

In this article I have shown you have to create a logging module for your own PHP website, using nothing more than PHP and its built-in functions. To view the log file you need to parse it using PHP, and then display it in whatever way you like. It is up to you to create a kick-ass traffic analyzer.

If you still prefer to use a pre-built traffic analyzer, have a look at http://www.hotscripts.com.

When building your first site the main things that you will probably think about is what types of content you will be adding to your site, how you are going to get visitors to your site and how you are going to generate good revenue from your site.

Well, all of the things mentioned above are crucial things to consider, but then again, what’s the point in thinking about them if you can’t even get a good Web host to host your site with. If you choose a Web host that has a poor service then it can do more damage to your site than good. If your sites host goes down often then your site will also go down and your visitors will get annoyed and will go elsewhere. Your sites earnings will decline and many people online will ignore your site, as people will start to think that your site is down more than what it’s up.

So now you are probably thinking to yourself, “where and how can I find a good Web host to host my site with, which is also reasonably priced?”

If you need a Web host that is reasonably priced so that you can make more profit from the turnover of your site, then a good place to start looking is by using a few Web hosting directories. You could start by using http://www.1hostseeking.com.

Ok! Now your probably think “why would I want to use a Web hosting directory as they contain many Web hosting providers and not all of them are likely to be good.”

The main reasons why you should use a Web hosting directory to find a Web host is so that you can easily find and compare a large amount of Web hosting providers that offer the services that you need to run your site successfully. You can also compare each Web host’s prices against each other and then you will be able to find a reasonably priced Web host.

Once you have narrowed down your search to a few Web hosts from the Web hosting directory, you could then go to your chosen Web hosting providers sites and check them out to have a better understanding to what they offer. If they look good, then the best thing to do is not to purchase any hosting from them until you have checked them out more virally. Checking a Web host out to see if they are reliable can be done by searching through some of the major search engines for reviews on your chosen few Web hosts and also you can check through some of the larger forums that discuss Web hosting topics. If you can’t find any information about the few Web hosts that you have narrowed down and chosen within any of the forums that you use, then you could always bring up that topic yourself and ask others what they think about your chosen Web hosts and if they have had any experiences with the them.

Once you have received other people’s opinions about the Web hosts and you have also read a number of reviews about them, you will then have a better understanding of what Web host should be the best to use for you Website.

Whatever type of website you want to host, choosing the correct host can be tricky. Most hosting companies offer you more than you will ever use, their sales staff recommend high-end packages for small websites.

Be careful when choosing, you will need room to expand but before you contact a company’s sales department; take a look at the size of your website. If it’s 10MB you wont need 1&1s Home package with 800MB for £4.99 a month!

Price and disk space aren’t the only factors to consider when choosing a host. Monthly transfer is how much information can be moved by both visitors and you; this may be from uploading and downloading files. Monthly transfer is also know as bandwidth and is slowly eaten up by every visit. I have seen many hosts offering more space then transfer! Don’t get caught out.

If you’re planning to install a forum or a content management system, they will both require a database. Linux and windows based hosts both handle MySQL databases, but Linux is usually praised as being the more efficient. Your host should allow you to add an extra database to your account with only a small fee, but you need to find out how many are included and how much upgrades cost before you decide on whom to hand your money too.

It is usually a good idea to use a company who you know is trustworthy, whether you know someone using them or have heard of their good services.

The year 2005 is expected to be the year of “outsourcing”.

In case this word is new to you, then prepare yourself to the fact that this will be the buzz word of 2005.

Outsourcing is the act of exporting jobs to 3rd world countries, for the benefit of saving on production and administration costs.

The most popular form of outsourcing to this day is IT outsourcing, and the most popular countries where you can outsource IT jobs to are Romania and India.

For example: your firm is spending a lot of money hiring programmers to do some programming tasks and software writing that do not need special skills. You decide to cut costs by exporting these jobs to India, and let the same tasks be done by professional Indians instead of Americans, because their labor rate is a lot lower. This would easily save you money, sometimes up to 80%, that you can spend on other primary jobs (e.g: marketing).

Outsourcing does not only help you save money, but also gives you that push needed to walk and extra step towards winning the competitive market.

Brian Taylor, CEO of Comfosoft Inc. says that outsourcing to India helped his company “save more than $23,000 per month on software programming and debugging. There are a lot of talented Indians who can do the same job without getting paid a 5 figure number.”

Today, and in the world of “online business”, and to make things even easier for you, SupportUniverse.com (http://www.supportuniverse.com) has launched a new marketplace where programmers meet recruiters. All you need to do is post your project and let skilled workers around the world compete to bid on delivering the best work for the lowest cost and the shortest period of time. You can then select the best offer.

Although some people oppose the idea of outsourcing, the fact is that it is spreading like fever and it is becoming more and more “mandatory” for those who want to succeed in the internet world.

When looking for a good web hosting provider to look after your website, it is easy to get confused. There are thousands of companies around, and they compete fiercely for your attention. Some are good, some are wolves …

Are you looking for web hosting? If you want to set up a personal website, or a modest commercial one, you are probably in the market for an inexpensive shared hosting plan. Those entry-level plans may cost $5-10 per month, and often boast very generous features for that modest prize. However, the strong competition often causes the companies to oversell, and then have difficulties living up to their promises. And how do you go about telling the good ones from the bad?

Maybe you go to one of the many web hosting review sites. Those places may offer extensive listings of various web hosting companies and their features; which is certainly helpful. But be aware of the fact that these review sites are out there to make money by referring new customers to the hosting companies! Therefore, they tend to praise those companies that pay them the best.

I used to be naive about these things, trusting the review sites. That was until I began some serious research on the subject myself. Were they really so good, those much-praised web hosting companies? Soon, I was able to uncover large amounts of customer testimonials that told a different story.

It became clear that several very large and well-known web hosting companies had surprising amounts of negative customer ratings against them. There were many angry customers that related stories about incompetent or non-existent customer support, billing disputes where the company kept charging ex-customers after they had cancelled their accounts; and more.

One may say that any company with many customers is likely to have a few that are hard to please. But in these cases, there were scores of reviews, and the majority was negative! Since certain hosting companies are known to prosecute those who have criticized them in public, I will not mention any names here.

In conclusion: I advice anyone looking for a reliable and honest web hosting provider to be very careful and not put too much trust in the web hosting ratings commonly found at hosting review sites and similar places. Also be aware that the customer feedback published by the web hosts themselves on their sites is of course filtered - and may even be faked.