Conclusion

I would like to offer a few more recommendations before you review our site at www.hosting365.ie for the perfect host.

Hosting Providers Internet Connection
An important question that is forgotten when evaluating hosts, What type of Internet connections do they have and what type of backup connections do they maintain?

The hosting company should have multiple high-capacity connections to the Internet and configured for fault tolerance. Better companies have their connections setup for load balancing. Load balancing is where traffic is balanced over all connections at once, so if one should fail, or even slow down, the others pickup the slack. A "switched" network is far superior, than a "routed" network, for network speed and reliability.

Another important question to ask your hosting provider, How are their connection(s) brought in to their facility? Do their connections enter in one location? If the city works department was repairing a water line and their back-hoe severed their connection the Net, do they have connection entering from another location? You would be surprised, but it happens all the time.

Customer Support
What type of customer support do they offer. Phone, e-mail, frequently asked (FAQ) pages, etc. I prefer a hosting company that offers all the above. Conduct a test by calling their phone number to see if a real person answers. Hopefully they have a freephone number, so you do not incur any long distance charges. Ask for the location of their FAQ pages and look through them. Find out their technical support hours.

Back-ups
What type of back-up do they provide with your plan. How often is the back-up done, and do they rotate tapes. What is the fee if you need information off a backup.

Referrals
Ask for referrals from their customer. E-mail them and ask what type of service they have received from the hosting provider. You may be surprised at what their customers will freely tell you.

Contracts
Read all contracts carefully. Some things to look for: Can they shut you site down for any reason, must you stay with them for a set amount of time, etc.

TOP 10 LISTS
Be very wary of other hosting directory's "Top 10 Lists" or "Recommended List". Many times these are just paid advertisements from hosting companies.

"A business associate recently surveyed 30 of the "top" hosting companies -- companies that were listed as some of the best in the hosting directories. He set out nine criteria, such as does the company have phone support?, does it provide indexed FAQ pages (Frequently Asked Questions)?, does it have shopping-cart, secure-server, and card-card transaction services?, and so on. These were things he felt were basic needs, things any decent hosting company should provide. The top score was 8; the average score was only 3.8. And those were the "best" hosting companies."

Lastly, Use your Common Sense
If something sounds to good to be true, it probably is. Just use your best judgment and do research before you make any decisions. Hopefully, this guide has helped and informed you on choosing a web hosting provider.