Some must read tips about the hosting industry, and how to avoid being
scamed!
1. Technical Support
Do not join a web host without testing out their technical
support first. The best way to test out a host's support is calling in. You'll
be surprised how many hosts with an 800 number never answer their phones, or
have long hold times. E-mailing a hosting company or submitting a ticket to their
sales department is not the way to test a host! Many of the companies have incredible
response times when contacting their sales department, very few have good times
when contacting support. After all they don't make money by supporting you. They
only make money by selling to you.
If you would like to test our technical support
please call us toll free at 1-888-728-5354, please don't hang up on us, simply
tell us you are calling as a test, we don't mind at all!
2. Scam Plans
If it sounds too good too be true it usually is! All
hosts have the same basic limitations when it comes to server resources and specs.
There is no magic server that has a never ending supply of RAM and CPU. If a
host ever claims to give unlimited space or bandwidth DO NOT JOIN THEM. The thing
to remember is that the average web site uses about 50 Megs space and less then
1 gig bandwidth a month. So what hosting companies do is they lie! They make
up scam plans with tons of space and bandwidth for around $8 bucks a month. It's
a numbers game... Only one or two of every 100 people that signup on the plan
are going to use all the bandwidth advertised. So what do they do? They usually
terminate the sites that use it saying "your site is using too many resources." They
aren't lying about the resource usage. IT'S the truth! Most people don't realize
that bandwidth and space used have nothing to do with the server resources being
used. Resource usage has to do with the amount of CPU and RAM a site uses. If
a site uses a lot of bandwidth they aren't kicked for using their bandwidth they
are kicked for using up most of the servers cpu and ram. Another thing to remember
is that the cheaper the plan is, and the more space / bandwidth included the
more sites per server the host will have to pack in to make their money back.
So the lesson here is don't shop for a host based on their plans! You should
shop based on recommendations and experience!
If you would like to know more about
our history and our business please Click Here.
3. About Paying Yearly
Another thing you'll notice is that most of these incredible
scam plans force you to pay for a year up front to get the good pricing. Why
would a hosting company care if you pay monthly or yearly? After all if you're
happy with them you're going to end up staying much longer than a year. Merchant
fees aren't that much so why? It's because most have horrible support, slow servers,
or even tons of downtime. If you were paying month to month you're not going
to stick around, but if you paid for a year up front what are you going to do?
You won't get your money back so you have no choice but to stay with them. ONLY
PAY MONTHLY! We have one plan that requires a year payment up front. Why? because
most hosts advertise a low monthly fee if paid yearly and a much higher price
if monthly. We still need to be competitive so we made one plan showing this
option. We would however prefer you sign up for a monthly plan. Remember paying
yearly to anyone is always a bad idea, but the choice is yours. We would do everything
in our power to honor the year but anything can happen to anyone.
4. Domain Name
Tips
Do not join a host that includes a free domain name
with their hosting package, and never purchase your domain name from a hosting
provider, unless you are positive they will be putting your information in the
WHOIS (We do, most don't). If your information isn't in the whois they could
blackmail you into staying with them. For all technical purposes whoever has
their information in the whois is the owner. A domain owner doesn't go by who
paid for it; it goes by whose information is on the whois. To check a whois on
the domain go there and type "domainname.com" and
click GO. Whoever's address, email, and phone number shows up is the domain owner.
We recommend purchasing a domain from www.megadomainers.com after you purchase
the name all you would do is put your host's dns in and your domain name will
then point to your hosting company.
Our domain name servers are as follows if
you are choosing to host with us: NS1.MEGAHOSTERS.COM - NS2.MEGAHOSTERS.COM -
NS3.MEGAHOSTERS.COM (NS3 is optional)
5. A Few More Tests To Check Out How Legit
A Company Is
Do a whois on their domain name. Then look for the creation date
of the domain name. If the domain name was created less then a year ago it's
more of a risk to join that hosting company. They could be a great host, but
considering more then 95% of new hosts go out of business within a year that
really isn't something you should be taking a chance on. It's too easy to become
a hosting company. All someone has to do is join a reseller plan and they are
now a host. Sure the hosting may be good, but that doesn't mean they are going
to provide good support nor does it mean they are going to pay their hosting
bill. Resellers get kicked all the time for not paying their bills (after many
warnings) and in many cases their unsuspecting customers lose their site. Don't
become a reseller victim. Mega Hosters is not a hosting reseller.
You could also
test the speed of a host's network to your location by...
Clicking start > run > type in "command" enter, and then type "ping
hostdomainname.com" wait for it to finish and look for the average ping.
The lower the number the better, and chances are the faster your site will load
if you should host with them. Any number around an 80 average would be good.
Anything over 100 is very bad (unless you're living in another country from where
the host is based.)
We also offer a nifty server speed test... Click
Here to launch the test
6. Customer Reviews
Don't believe anything you read on the hosting directories.
They don't care who they recommend as they are all paid listings. The highest
bidder gets the spot. What you should do to find reviews is search google using
the company's name. If they have been around a year you should find many real
reviews of people who use their hosting.
7. Uptime
If a hosting company claims 100% uptime they are lying. All servers
need to be rebooted every now and then for security and software updates. If
they never reboot that means their server is insecure and they will eventually
be hacked.
When a company guarantees an uptime, that doesn't make it true. A host
has as many uptimes as they have servers. It all depends on what server they
put you on, and how well they manage it from the time you're put on it. We guarantee
a 99.9 uptime but that does not mean we will hit it every month for eternity.
We
hope this helps you make a more informed decision while choosing a web hositng
company and we hope you choose Mega Hosters for this service.
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