Web hosting companies are the backbone of the web. Without them, there would be no web sites. Sorry to state the obvious, but I want to make the point that there are tens of thousands of web hosting companies in America and one common problem. Most hosting companies offer what you could call "bulk hosting" service. The idea behind bulk hosting is to sell discount hosting service with a large amount of features to profit from hosting a large bulk of accounts. This can be good for the consumer's wallet, but be warned, discount web hosting can give webmasters headaches. Discount web hosting businesses face two major complications. The first is having to handle the demand of customer service needs to a wide customer base. The second problem is that in order to profit from selling the service at such a low cost, they have to place a large number of accounts on each server. This can cause stress on the server which in turn causes low performance or even downtime if it becomes overloaded.

Unless you are specifically looking for cheep service, the first thing to do when searching for web hosting is to avoid discount web hosts. This is especially true if you run a business, or your web sites provide most of your income. Do yourself a favor and make sure you call or email prospective hosts before making a purchase. Find out the maximum number of customers they place on one server.

One of the most important questions to ask them is how long it takes them to reply to tech support requests when you e-mail them or submit a support ticket. Most companies should not take longer than 24 hours. Some will even reply within just a few hours.

Another question to ask ahead of time is how much monthly tansfer they offer for your account and what their pricing is if you go over the limit. This is good to know ahead of time for high traffic sites.

This discussion covers why to avoid discount web hosting and what questions to ask any host before you sign up, regardless of who you choose to use for web hosting service. We have covered some of the most important topics. There are other details such as making sure the host you go with provides all of the web applications you need, but the basics are in disk space, bandwidth and the competence of the support staff. If you do choose to go the professional route, it is recommded that you look at the hosting plans at our company Vectro Web Hosting. You might spend a few dollars a month more than you would elsewhere, but we have covered why that's worth it. All accounts come with cPanel and tons of features. There is an extensive knowledgebase you can use to learn how to mange important aspects of your account. Give it a try, there's a 30 day money back guarantee.

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