Important information on buying web hosting Don't get scammed

First I would like to start this out by saying there are many good hosts here on DP.

But there has been an on going situation about people being scammed and losing their money and websites.
Through our time as a host we have notices a pattern with in hosts! Some of these patterns have held true with those hosts that are here one day and gone the next! Below is my personal thoughts and opinions as to what to look for when buying hosting / reseller accounts on public forums / blogs.

First before you buy any hosting from any one anywhere, do these things first.

1) Read the Terms of service, in most cases (even if there is a money back policy) if you break the TOS you will not get a refund.

2) Know what you want, or what you intend to host. If you want to run proxy’s, adult sites, warez, ect. You must ask to see if you are allowed to do so. Failure to ask questions is the biggest issue when purchasing a new account.

3) Most host that offer proxy hosting, (for example some hosting packages are not allowed to host proxy’s.) in most cases proxies are hosted on different servers, as they require different needs.
So you must know what you intend to host before you by a hosting package to insure you get the package that you want. This will insure that your site is not suspended for violating the TOS.

4) Find out how long they have been in business, read the itraders that have been left. Google is your friend – Use Google –Yahoo and find out the real scoop!

5) If they do not have a website or TOS in place be very careful. ( Big RED flag )

6) In my findings, buying yearly packages that are ridiculous in prices turn out to bite you in the ass, in most cases they are either a reseller and will be shut done because the reseller does not follow the server TOS, or they are trying to make a quick buck and over selling the server and they will be gone in 1-3 Months.

Do your research before buying, ask questions, and make sure all your questions and concerns are completely answered. Don’t settle for a half answer , Your time and money is at stake when choosing your host.

Do a domain trace to see where the servers are located, if they offer you to host warez (linking is a little different) make sure that the server is located in a country that allows it.

If it sounds to good to be true then it probably is. So if you find a VPS for $2.95 a month with cPanel included then it is probable a scam. (Some of you will know what I am talking about here.) I know there are good honest host that run some great specials here and that is fine, (as we do also) but it is normally for a limited amount of people and time.

Unlimited / Un metered accounts have Limits. Yes we have offered un metered plans. But there are limitations, the un metered plans are not allowed to run proxies and have other limitations. It is more of a marketing trend. Yes we have 3 servers with 1.5TB of space on them each and not even close to being half full, and we can add another 750Gb hard drive at any time. Most cases there is a server cpu clause that states no 1 account can consume more than xx% of the server resources.

But what I am saying is be very careful when buying unlimited or un metered plans, know what you are buying read the T.O.S and make sure you follow them.
I know I have missed a lot so all you other host here on DP please feel free to add to this thread.

I am tired of seeing people lose their money and time not to mention there income streams, and being left in the dark with nothing.
I wrote this hoping that we can help prevent others from being scammed here on DP.

The MOD’S should make this sticky and place in the web hosting thread.
We are hoping this topic and thread can save a few people the aggravation and disappointment that so many have felt lately.
To all that read this – Thank You

Aimee and Jason
IwhiC.Com

 

bottom line is shop around ... if a deal seems to good to be true it is.

 

Nice tips The most important thing for me is never register your domain name with your host. They might held it hostage.

 

If you do registrar a domain with a host, just make sure you read the T.O.S as some require you to host with them for a certain amount of time before the domain can be transfered.

 

This is a very good guide and should be a sticky on hosting section.

i think a few days ago someone was going to write this too. (cant rememer it's you or who) but i think this one is already good enough for people who are looking for a hosting.

Good job.

 

Thanks for this post

 

Great tips

 

good tips! thanks for the informative post

 

very essential post thank you very much

 

I was informed that it should not go in the bst as I am not actually selling.. I would rather have it there as that is where they will be buying but that is not what the mods wanted.. I am hoping that they will make this sticky and then move it there..

 

This tips will help me a lot. Thanks for that.

 

That would have been Cameron we were going to help him with it but he never got it up and I thought that it was to important to wait around.

Thank you, I am glad that it helps..

 

I was actually about to post it on my brand new blog and then you PM'med me this so I didn't see the point

 

Just remember you get what you pay for.

I see lots of hosts offering 1500gigs of rackspace and 3000g's of data transfer every month for like 5.95.

Theres no way a company can offer that and actually be profitable. Theres some hidden fee your not seeing, or more likely, if you actually use more than 5 gigs of bandwidth your website suddenly goes offline with no explanation then a 3 days trouble ticket wait to get a canned response to your support inquiry.

If you have an online business, go with a professional host with a history of working with businesses. Not the cheap host that your grandma wants to use to make a website shrine to her cat.

Couple examples of good quality business hosts,
securedservers.com,
nationalnet.com.

 

Doing your homework is the key, i've been with 3 different hosts and because I did my homework i've had no problems whatsoever.

Try to steer clear of the so called 'unlimited' packages, it's technically impossible and they will probably have the server crammed with sites and performance will suffer as a result, also any insane sounding plans like 400GB space and 700GB bandwidth for $2.99 wont be worth your while.

 

Additions:
1) Find out how many domains are hosted on the IP with http://www.domaintools.com/ or http://www.myipneighbors.com/ We called this Reverse IP. If the IP contains more than 500, you site will take longer time to load.

2) Check the IP for spam records. Go to http://www.dnsbl.info/ and type in an IP to check. Your mail will probably blocked if the IP is listed as spam.

3) Check for the dns record of the host. Go to http://www.intodns.com/ and type in the domain to check. It shows common error of the dns.

4) Always ask them for the uptime records. Some host hide their uptime. Records shouldn't from WebHostingStuff as the records from them isn't accurate. Recommended are Uppanel and HostTracker.

5) Google their domain with some other keywords like scam, rip-off, bad...

6) Always backup your data even they have daily backup on the server for safety precautions.

 

A good source of information on web hosting and hope it is stickied

 

Don't feel there is no point., Your knowledge of hosting will bring a lot of information to this thread.. We look forward to your article.

Excellent addition's: I will also add http://network-tools.com/ excellent tool for trace route on the network and IP address, A very nice complete dns trace as well.

Thank you
Jason

UOTE]

 

PLease sticky this thread in Web Hosting Section