One of the biggest pains about having a web site is
changing web hosts. I ought to know, I've changed
over half a dozen times in the last three years. Each
time has been a step up and with each move it becomes
easier and easier to change.
Why change web hosts?
In many cases, your web site is the first and only
thing that your customer sees (besides, hopefully,
your product after they make a purchase). This is
especially true if your company does not have a real-world
presence such as a store or office. Thus it is important
that your web site be available to your visitors (and
customers if your site is commercial) twenty-four
hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.
Not only must it be available, but your web site
must load quickly. If your host computer is too slow,
it doesn't matter how much you optimize your graphics
and HTML, cut down page sizes and perform other actions.
Other features must work properly. These include
CGI routines, autoresponders, PHP, ASP and SSI scripts,
and, very importantly, shopping carts and credit card
services.
All of this is so important that you must keep an
eye on your site. I use two services: alertsite and
internetseer. Both of these ping my site occasionally
to determine if it is up. Any errors are reported
to my email inbox. Why do I do this? Two reasons:
(a) it's critical that my site be online all of the
time, and (b) these services provide a third-party
record of any downtime, which is useful when attempting
to get fees refunded.
These two services also measure response time, which
is very useful to determine how well your site responds
to your users browsing requests. These two factors,
uptime and response time, are the most critical measures
of web site performance. A consistently bad number
in either measure is more than enough reason to find
another host.
Of course, if your CGI routines stop working mysteriously
or your autoresponders stop responding, then by all
means shoot off a trouble ticket to your host. You
have a right to expect these types of issues to be
quickly and politely fixed. If they are not and the
errors continue, then consider moving to another host.
