When to get out
Some of you reading this might already have a web host. You may also be asking yourself whether or not it's time to bail out of your current host. "When should I pack up and leave?" you ask. The answer to this question depends on a number of things. The first thing that should be taken into consideration ought to be the reliability of the host (Their staff, help desk, etc.) and most importantly - their servers. If you frequently submit help desk tickets, and have to wait days before they are taken care of, then you're probably not getting the service that you deserve and need as a paying customer. Additionally, if you find that the server(s) you are hosted on is down for numerous hours a week for reasons unknown or unexplained, or find that server response times are very high during peak hours, then your web host might be over-loading and abusing their servers.

Unfortunately these things are commonplace in the web hosting industry. It's not uncommon for web hosts to try and sacrifice customer service and satisfaction for lower operating costs. If you find this to be the case, then I recommend finding another host who is more reputable and more customer-oriented. When looking for a host, whether you're starting out, or are looking for a new host, remember to always keep reliability and dependability in mind.

Though reliability is the most common reason to switch web hosts, there are other reasons why customers decide to change hosts including unfair pricing, poor support, data loss, location, and software installed on the server(s).

Take my advice...
Back when I first started, I was hosted with a host named Cyber Wings. What brought me in was the fact that they were so cheep. I thought I was getting a great deal by only paying about 8 dollars a month. Back then I didn't think anything of it - no bells went off in my head that I was getting so much space and bandwidth for only 8 dollars a month. Several months later, the server began to crawl. Page loading times were horrendous, and support was nearly non-existent.

To make a long story short, I woke up one day to all of my sites being down. I figured they were doing updates. A few hours went by, and still nothing. Later on, I learned that they didn't pay their bills that month, and the data center that housed their servers decided to pull the plug on all of their servers - WITHOUT WARNING. I was never able to get into contact with anyone from Cyber Wings, but I was able to get in contact with someone from the data center. They were nice enough to turn the server back on for 24 hours in order for people to get their data off of the server.

What I failed to do was research. I didn't look into what their service was like, and I paid the price for it - Big time.

Last I heard the owner of the company was in jail for fraud.

Getting Started: Picking a Web Host

Reliability:
As mentioned above, reliability is the single most important thing when looking into a web host. The server must be up and running in order for you to utilize what you are paying for. Your website will be useless if the server is unreachable. When picking out a host, be sure to do your homework. Research your potential host's reputation by searching through Google, or on the Web Hosting Talk forums which offer tons of information for potential web developers.

Support
Once you have found a web host that has proven itself to be reliable, the next major thing on the list of things to check before signing up is the quality of support offered. Many hosts will offer forums as a means of support. Do yourself a favor before signing up. Check and make sure the forums are active. If they list an AIM screen name or some other means of communication in real time on their website, check it out before giving them your money. Don't be afraid to call them or chat with them online for a few minutes to see what they're like. You'll be glad to have good support when something does go wrong (And from time to time things will go wrong, even with the best hosts) or when you need something done, such as a backup restored, they'll be willing to assist you in doing so. Remember, they should be glad to talk to you - you're a potential customer, and the more customers they get, the more money they make. So they want your business! If they give you the cold shoulder treatment, or rub you the wrong way, look around some more. There are thousands of hosts out there to choose from.

Resources Offered
There are some web hosts out there that claim that they offer an "unlimited" amount of disk space, bandwidth, and other things. Believe me, if you begin to use up enough resources on their server(s), they will quickly either pull the plug on you, or cap you and charge you an ungodly amount for any overages you have accumulated. If you've already had a web host in the past, and are simply switching, then figuring out how much bandwidth and space you're going to need should be easy. However, if you're starting off, then you might not know what you're going to need to get things started. I'd recommend getting 100 to 200 megs of web space, and at least several gigs of bandwidth for starters. You can always add on as you need it, but remember: Web hosts will not issue refunds for resources that you don't use!

Also, basic web panel, PHP, CGI, Perl, and MySQL services should come with your hosting package. If not, you may want to look elsewhere. All of those features are common nowadays, and if they're not being offered as standard, they need to catch up with the times.

Terms of Service / Content Allowed
This is pretty simple: Be sure to have a basic understanding of your host's terms of service agreement. More specifically, be weary of what types of content they allow. Some hosts have a zero tolerance policy when it comes to adult material. So be on the look out for what goes on your web space if you plan on having forums or a means for visitors to upload files to your account. It could get your service cut off.

Location
For those of you looking to go hard core, this may be something to seriously consider. Whether you may want to co-locate a server in a data center or want to transfer massive files between your computer and your server, having a host relatively close will enable you to drive there quickly in the event of a hardware failure or an upgrade, or transfer files more quickly depending on the data center's setup. A short distance between you and your server will lessen the amount of hops data has to take in order to reach its final destination. Again, this should only be taken into consideration if you're planning on building an empire online.

Always remember, when looking for a web host, never sacrifice anything for the reliability of the services that you're paying for. What good will "unlimited" web space and bandwidth do if you and your customers cannot view the material? No service equals no content. Plain and simple.

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