Not really serious about hosting or how to check host adequacy

While filling VPS.today - a directory for choosing virtual servers - the goal was not to add as many hosting companies as possible. On this site, we place high demands on hosters and are very sensitive to all the shortcomings that we encounter on the hoster's website and in its operation. This allows you to offer the services of providers who are responsible for their work and make a minimum of errors.

In this article I will tell you what criteria influence the appearance of a company in the catalog (or disappearance from it), as well as what you should pay attention to when you first get acquainted with the hoster. I’ll try to do no advertising or anti-advertising, all coincidences are random. If any company was not found in the catalog, this is not their fault, but our defectthis does not mean that she is bad. So, suppose that we caught the eye of the X hoster site, about which we had not heard before. What simple steps can be taken to protect yourself from possible troubles in the future? Start from the date of registration of the host’s domain to make sure that it is not registered yesterday. General rule: the older the better. Companies with a “young” domain often have some shortcomings and the percentage of refusals to place them in the catalog is higher, therefore, when you see a young hoster, you need to be more alert. Certainly, there may be cases when a company changes its domain for various reasons, but they can be neglected. You can check the domain registration date with any WhoIs service .







You can read thematic forums or sites with reviews in order to have an idea about the history of the company, its relation to customers. Many hosters create topics in forums (very popular, for example, searchengines.guru) and appoint employees representing their company. If the hoster does not have a topic with reviews, or none of the employees respond there, then this may be an occasion to collect more information. It is worth noting that the number of reviews, as well as their content, is not always true, as:

• some hosters replenish the balance or make discounts to customers leaving positive feedback;
• other not very conscientious hosters can leave negative reviews about competitors;
• It’s difficult to check whether the review was left by a real client or written by the hoster itself, for this very reason I don’t want to add a section with reviews about hosters.

Of course, it’s worth looking at the site of the company whose services you intend to use:



The presence of a large number of typos or errors may indicate some neglect of your site, although it does not always directly affect the quality of services. One mistake, of course, can be forgiven, but you shouldn’t do it this way:



It’s good if the hoster gives you the opportunity to use the test period for your services. Even a couple of hours may be enough to evaluate performance and failure not stability. You should know in advance whether a refund is possible if you do not like something.

I believe that a mandatory requirement for billing is to work via HTTPS, since billing stores information about the client’s account, funds in the account, may contain personal user data, and also allows access to subsequently ordered services. Hosters that do not protect their users are not added to the catalog, and I highly recommend not using their services.

When adding tariffs to the site, we try to ensure that there are no discrepancies between the information posted on the site and in billing. Often there is a situation when, after updating the site, the hosters forget to update the billing, and there is a confusion with prices and tariffs. We write to the hoster about all the errors found, and although errors are usually corrected in a timely manner, there are times when they are ignored, and then the question arises of excluding the company from the catalog due to the fact that such errors can be misleading for both users and editors catalog.

After registering in billing, it’s worth asking a simple question to support (at the same time, if round-the-clock support is announced, then the ideal time would be New Year’s Eve, Friday evening on the day of the system administrator or, in extreme cases, the night from Sunday to Monday). Well, if the response time does not exceed 3-4 hours, the allowable response time for the support is usually less than 24 hours. If this is not so, then you should seriously think about cooperation with this company. From time to time we “ping” support, asking simple questions about services and filtering out those who answer longer than a day. In my opinion, if the hoster cannot answer a simple question within 24 hours, then cooperation with him risks not having very good consequences in case of some force majeure situations, and in case of breakdowns, you can wait for an answer for several days.

It seems that people with a sense of humor work



here : Or here is a great letter that came in the mailing list that lifts the mood, leaving a positive impression about the hoster:


Please tell us how you begin your acquaintance with a new hoster, what you pay attention to.

LOOKING.HOUSE - the project collected more than 150 points of looking glass in 40 countries. You can quickly execute host, ping, traceroute, and mtr commands.