how to choose a good web host?

[Seoruchi]

1. How reliable is the service of a web host?

2. What kind of performance can I expect?
A great hosting company has one or more T3 lines that are always connected to the Internet, not going through someone else's network operations center. The servers should be fast, ideally Pentium Pro or Linux. You should also let your host know if you plan to use bandwidth killers such as streaming audio or video.

3. How good is phone support?

4. How much will it cost me?

5. How is security handled?

6. How much bandwidth will I need for data transfer?

7. What about a control panel?

8. What about a POP3 account?
When sending and receiving email, POP3 counts are very important. These types of accounts you can assign to individual users as their own email addresses.

9. What about spam and viruses?

10. What about running my own online store?
If you are planning on running your own store on the internet, there will be a few factors that will be involved with that decision. First of all, you'll need an SSL certificate for your website, so that you can process credit card transactions.

[MattBarthorp]

I suppose, Seoruchi is suggesting the points that one must consider when choosing a hosting company. Though a good write-up about the necessary aspects that users must consider when searching for a reliable and an affordable web hosting company

[Brian]

Yes price has to be taken into factor too.
One thing that is a good idea is to check out their forums too. If all you see is compliments and good stuff then they are probably not a good host as they are hiding something. Search these forums you will see complaints and how they were resolved.

Speak to some members and ask about their experience too. Ive been here 10 years and am the longest customer so I am sure I would be a good advertisement for here