Frequently Asked Unix System Administrator Interview Questions

A UNIX system administrator is a person who manages the multi-user computer system in an organization. He or she supports, monitors, tests and troubleshoots hardware and software problems. They also install new software releases, upgrade the system, perform procedures to prevent the spread of viruses, evaluate and install patches and resolve software related problems.

An interview is a recruitment process in which an interviewer asks questions related to the job from an interviewee. It is a two way communication process. Given below are some common interview questions that come up again and again during interviews for this post.

1. What do you understand by semaphore?
A semaphore is a kind of inter process communication resource which is used for synchronization and mutual exclusion between any two asynchronous processes.

2. How will you define a COM?
COM is the short form for Component Object Model. It is a Microsoft platform for software components which is used to enable cross-application communication and dynamic object creation in any programming language that supports the technology. COM is often used in the software development world as an umbrella term that encompasses the OLE, ActiveX, COM+ and DCOM technologies.

3. What do you mean by UNIX?
UNIX developed by Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie in 1969 by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs. It runs on a range of computers from microprocessors to the largest mainframes.

4. Define some of the functions of a kernel?
The kernel is a part of the Operating System that interacts directly with the hardware of computer, through device drivers that are built into the kernel. It provides set of services that can be used by programs, insulating these programs from the underlying hardware. A kernel is responsible for managing computer memory, allocating resource of the computer, controlling access to the computer, maintaining file system and handling interrupts and errors.

5. What skills will you bring to our organization?
Well, I am familiar with Sun, Solaris and Cisco Hardware, TCP/IP, Jumpstart, VERITAS Volume Manager, C-shell, Perl Oracle 8i, My SQL, Solaris Production, Apache, Sun Server, UNIX and Linux.

6. What occupation specific tasks have you undertaken in your previous organization?
In my previous organization I used to monitor and tune system, develop and maintain the documents, library and procedural documents and install and configure the modem, routers, hubs and LAN terminal servers.

These are some of the important interview questions that are frequently asked. Do not forget to say “thank you” to the person or people who interviewed you.

Questions to Ask a Web Host

The web hosting industry has become increasingly competitive and there are a myriad of companies out there battling for your business – but some won’t definitely have you or your business interests in mind. Cheap web site hosting definitely doesn’t mean the best hosting and neither does signing up with the most expensive companies guarantee you the best service – it’s a

confusing world of solutions, smoke and mirrors.

Competition’s a great thing, but the frenzied levels of promotion has also forced a number of hosts to use questionable marketing tactics and a heavy load of activity-restricting fine print in their contracts. Many web-hosting companies don’t make profits by establishing a solid customer base, but rather by having a high turnover. The more customers they can have signing up and then dropping off, the more dollars they make.

Of course, not all hosting services take this attitude and there are some solid companies that respect and encourage their clients.

FINDING THE RIGHT HOST

Finding these gems amongst the rot is the challenge. Some webmasters have to change hosting services 3 or 4 times a year! The downtime involved prevents them doing what they do best, to maintain and develop their sites.

Regardless of how good a hosting service may claim to be or how they represent themselves, the only way you’ll get to understand what they are offering is to ask questions – and then to file the answers for comparison later on. Find out about what others are saying about them too; but bear in mind that if a hosting company has been around for a long time; they won’t have a 100% satisfaction record – it’s just not possible given the thousands, or perhaps hundreds of thousands of clients they’ve provided services to over the years. Approach the review process holistically.

Creating a template email to send out to hosting companies is the most time efficient way to cut through the hype and allow you to make apples to apples comparisons.

ASKING THE RIGHT QUESTIONS

But what questions should you ask a hosting service? A great deal depends on the type of web site you have. For the purposes of this exercise, we’ll use an example of a typical small site that may perhaps be receiving up to a few thousand visitors a day. Even if your site is only a hobby web site, or community based – you never know when things may change. It isn’t an uncommon situation for a well-designed and targeted site to grow from a few visitors a day to hundreds, or even thousands within a short space of time.

The first step in tracking down the best and most affordable web hosting company for your needs is to use your favorite search engine and visit web

hosts. Briefly look around the site to see if their offer seems interesting and their ideals and ethics in line with yours. Take a look at the company profile, if there isn’t one that details the company (rather than how good they claim to be), run like hell! The rest of your initial enquiries can be handled via their support system.

Be straightforward when you submit your questions to the hosting service, let them know that you are shopping around.

NOT ALL HOSTS ARE CREATED EQUAL

The criteria for the first cull is simple – if they don’t respond to your enquiry within 24 hours, delete them from your contenders list. The same goes if they just send you links to promo material without any personalized message text. To make it more interesting, send your email late on a Saturday night – wherever the hosting company is in the world, it will be the weekend.

The rationale behind the 24 hour deadline is this – if a web hosting company can’t respond with pre-sales questions within an acceptable time frame, it may be an indication of what their customer support is like. Also, many web hosts don’t see the “big picture” – which is a fatal mistake. You may be starting out small, but who knows how big you’ll become and how many other

people you will refer to their service? A forward thinking company recognizes this and reacts appropriately.

Don’t make it too hard on the hosting companies in your email to start off with, you can ask more detailed questions as you reduce the list of possibilities. The following is a template that you might like to use.

SAMPLE EMAIL TEMPLATE:

This example would be suitable for most personal and business start-ups for initial enquiries. These questions are not highly technical and any hosting service should be able to answer them confidently, competently and quickly.

==================

Dear Sales,

I am currently in the market for a good web hosting service with excellent customer support and you are among a number of hosting services I am reviewing. I have taken a quick look at what you have to offer on your web site, but with so many services offering so many different options -it can be pretty confusing. I would greatly appreciate you answering a few questions and your recommendations for a plan that would suit my purposes.

Here is a list of my basic current needs:

At least 500 meg of Hard Drive space (Note: change this to suit)

At least 2 gig of Bandwidth per month (Note: change this to suit. 2 gig is plenty for most to start out with)

At least 20 mailboxes (Note: change this to suit)

FrontPage 2002 Extensions (if you use it)

PHP 5 (even if you don’t need this initially)

Perl 5 (for running scripts)

2 MySQL (database capabilities – with so many popular applications needing MySQL databases, it’s best to get an account that has multiple db’s)

FTP access

Server logs access (for in-depth web site traffic studies later on)

Web site traffic monitoring reports

Easy to use admin interface

(Any other specific needs)

What would you recommend, bearing in mind that I’ll need plenty of room to grow. Please also send the URLs of the suggested package and upgrade options pages. (Many of your questions will be answered on these pages, links will save you from having to hunt around on their sites)

Questions:

1. Is there a setup fee?

(A setup fee is not necessarily a terrible thing, it just needs to be factored into your budget)

2. What is your uptime record?

(Look for at least 99.9% uptime over a month. )

3. Can I upgrade my plan at any time?

(A good hosting service will allow you to change your plan at any time)

4. What are your excess bandwidth charges?

(Although unlikely you will get excess traffic during start-up phase, it’s important to know how much you will be charged if you use over and above your quota for data transfer. Data transfer or “bandwidth” refers to the amount of data going in and out of your site e.g. publishing up information or requests from visitors for information including page views.)

5. How often will my site be backed up?

(In a number of cases, you’ll find that the cheaper the price, the less likely your site will be backed up on a regular basis)

6. Do you offer secure server and ecommerce capabilities (shopping carts etc.) included or as an upgrade?(You may not want this in the beginning, but it’s handy to have)

7. Do you offer an affiliate program or referrer bonuses?(If you settle with a host and you are happy with the service, no doubt you’ll tell others. Why not profit from that – it can subsidize the running of your site or even turn into a good earner for you!)

8. Is your free tech support available 7 days a week? (A VERY important point – many offer this but sometimes all you’ll get is a recorded or autoresponder message during weekends. Telephone support is not a necessity for most people – a good email or online ticket based support system can actually be better than the phone as it provides a record for both parties. Many helpdesk telephone support people have very little technical knowledge – they tend to rely on “wizards”.)

9. Why should I choose you over other hosts offering the same sorts of features and pricing?

Thank you for taking the time to answer these questions

Me.

These questions and points are just to get you started in the reviews process and will allow you to weed out many of the fly-by-nighters. It may seem like a lot to ask, but an experienced staffer should be able to complete the questions very quickly. Always be polite when posing questions as the answers will be provided by a human being with feelings as well. By asking questions in a courteous manner, you will get the relationship off to a good start.

When composing the email, skip a couple of lines between each question to encourage the person responding to put their remarks under the relevant question. This will give you a good record to refer back to in the future. Always respond to each response with a brief thank you note.

Author: John J. Ralph

website: http://www.thinkhost.com/?p=6268bb7d

Questions to Ask a Web Host

The web hosting industry has become increasingly competitive and there are a myriad of companies out there battling for your business – but some won’t definitely have you or your business interests in mind. Cheap web site hosting definitely doesn’t mean the best hosting and neither does signing up with the most expensive companies guarantee you the best service – it’s a

confusing world of solutions, smoke and mirrors.

Competition’s a great thing, but the frenzied levels of promotion has also forced a number of hosts to use questionable marketing tactics and a heavy load of activity-restricting fine print in their contracts. Many web-hosting companies don’t make profits by establishing a solid customer base, but rather by having a high turnover. The more customers they can have signing up and then dropping off, the more dollars they make.

Of course, not all hosting services take this attitude and there are some solid companies that respect and encourage their clients.

FINDING THE RIGHT HOST

Finding these gems amongst the rot is the challenge. Some webmasters have to change hosting services 3 or 4 times a year! The downtime involved prevents them doing what they do best, to maintain and develop their sites.

Regardless of how good a hosting service may claim to be or how they represent themselves, the only way you’ll get to understand what they are offering is to ask questions – and then to file the answers for comparison later on. Find out about what others are saying about them too; but bear in mind that if a hosting company has been around for a long time; they won’t have a 100% satisfaction record – it’s just not possible given the thousands, or perhaps hundreds of thousands of clients they’ve provided services to over the years. Approach the review process holistically.

Creating a template email to send out to hosting companies is the most time efficient way to cut through the hype and allow you to make apples to apples comparisons.

ASKING THE RIGHT QUESTIONS

But what questions should you ask a hosting service? A great deal depends on the type of web site you have. For the purposes of this exercise, we’ll use an example of a typical small site that may perhaps be receiving up to a few thousand visitors a day. Even if your site is only a hobby web site, or community based – you never know when things may change. It isn’t an uncommon situation for a well-designed and targeted site to grow from a few visitors a day to hundreds, or even thousands within a short space of time.

The first step in tracking down the best and most affordable web hosting company for your needs is to use your favorite search engine and visit web

hosts. Briefly look around the site to see if their offer seems interesting and their ideals and ethics in line with yours. Take a look at the company profile, if there isn’t one that details the company (rather than how good they claim to be), run like hell! The rest of your initial enquiries can be handled via their support system.

Be straightforward when you submit your questions to the hosting service, let them know that you are shopping around.

NOT ALL HOSTS ARE CREATED EQUAL

The criteria for the first cull is simple – if they don’t respond to your enquiry within 24 hours, delete them from your contenders list. The same goes if they just send you links to promo material without any personalized message text. To make it more interesting, send your email late on a Saturday night – wherever the hosting company is in the world, it will be the weekend.

The rationale behind the 24 hour deadline is this – if a web hosting company can’t respond with pre-sales questions within an acceptable time frame, it may be an indication of what their customer support is like. Also, many web hosts don’t see the “big picture” – which is a fatal mistake. You may be starting out small, but who knows how big you’ll become and how many other

people you will refer to their service? A forward thinking company recognizes this and reacts appropriately.

Don’t make it too hard on the hosting companies in your email to start off with, you can ask more detailed questions as you reduce the list of possibilities. The following is a template that you might like to use.

SAMPLE EMAIL TEMPLATE:

This example would be suitable for most personal and business start-ups for initial enquiries. These questions are not highly technical and any hosting service should be able to answer them confidently, competently and quickly.

==================

Dear Sales,

I am currently in the market for a good web hosting service with excellent customer support and you are among a number of hosting services I am reviewing. I have taken a quick look at what you have to offer on your web site, but with so many services offering so many different options -it can be pretty confusing. I would greatly appreciate you answering a few questions and your recommendations for a plan that would suit my purposes.

Here is a list of my basic current needs:

At least 500 meg of Hard Drive space (Note: change this to suit)

At least 2 gig of Bandwidth per month (Note: change this to suit. 2 gig is plenty for most to start out with)

At least 20 mailboxes (Note: change this to suit)

FrontPage 2002 Extensions (if you use it)

PHP 5 (even if you don’t need this initially)

Perl 5 (for running scripts)

2 MySQL (database capabilities – with so many popular applications needing MySQL databases, it’s best to get an account that has multiple db’s)

FTP access

Server logs access (for in-depth web site traffic studies later on)

Web site traffic monitoring reports

Easy to use admin interface

(Any other specific needs)

What would you recommend, bearing in mind that I’ll need plenty of room to grow. Please also send the URLs of the suggested package and upgrade options pages. (Many of your questions will be answered on these pages, links will save you from having to hunt around on their sites)

Questions:

1. Is there a setup fee?

(A setup fee is not necessarily a terrible thing, it just needs to be factored into your budget)

2. What is your uptime record?

(Look for at least 99.9% uptime over a month. )

3. Can I upgrade my plan at any time?

(A good hosting service will allow you to change your plan at any time)

4. What are your excess bandwidth charges?

(Although unlikely you will get excess traffic during start-up phase, it’s important to know how much you will be charged if you use over and above your quota for data transfer. Data transfer or “bandwidth” refers to the amount of data going in and out of your site e.g. publishing up information or requests from visitors for information including page views.)

5. How often will my site be backed up?

(In a number of cases, you’ll find that the cheaper the price, the less likely your site will be backed up on a regular basis)

6. Do you offer secure server and ecommerce capabilities (shopping carts etc.) included or as an upgrade?(You may not want this in the beginning, but it’s handy to have)

7. Do you offer an affiliate program or referrer bonuses?(If you settle with a host and you are happy with the service, no doubt you’ll tell others. Why not profit from that – it can subsidize the running of your site or even turn into a good earner for you!)

8. Is your free tech support available 7 days a week? (A VERY important point – many offer this but sometimes all you’ll get is a recorded or autoresponder message during weekends. Telephone support is not a necessity for most people – a good email or online ticket based support system can actually be better than the phone as it provides a record for both parties. Many helpdesk telephone support people have very little technical knowledge – they tend to rely on “wizards”.)

9. Why should I choose you over other hosts offering the same sorts of features and pricing?

Thank you for taking the time to answer these questions

Me.

These questions and points are just to get you started in the reviews process and will allow you to weed out many of the fly-by-nighters. It may seem like a lot to ask, but an experienced staffer should be able to complete the questions very quickly. Always be polite when posing questions as the answers will be provided by a human being with feelings as well. By asking questions in a courteous manner, you will get the relationship off to a good start.

When composing the email, skip a couple of lines between each question to encourage the person responding to put their remarks under the relevant question. This will give you a good record to refer back to in the future. Always respond to each response with a brief thank you note.

Author: John J. Ralph

website: http://www.thinkhost.com/?p=6268bb7d

Your Domain Name Trademarks Questions Answered

A frequent question among Internet entrepreneurs is “Can I trademark a domain name?” The answer is yes – in some cases. Generally, the rule is that you can trademark a domain name if it is original and not just a combination of ordinary dictionary words. Legal authority NOLO dot com has the following to say on the matter:

“For instance, while domain names that use common or descriptive terms, such as health answers dot com or stamp finders dot com, may work very well to bring users to a website, they usually do not qualify for much trademark protection.”

These domains, while catchy and memorable, are really just combinations of ordinary words that all people use. Instead, if you want to trademark your domain, it needs to be distinctive. Here are a few examples of distinctive domain names you are probably familiar with:

Yahoo

Google

Microsoft

These domains are all candidates for trademark status because they are not ordinary and common words. Nothing beats speaking to a lawyer, but one of the best informal tests you can run your domain up against is the question, “If someone were to say my domain to another person, would it be very clear that they meant our website?” If the answer is no, your will most likely have a difficult time trademarking that domain.

Once you have a good, distinct domain in mind, the next step is to make sure that no one else already owns it. Fortunately, the Internet makes this process easy. The simplest way to check if a domain is available is by visiting a domain registrar. One of the better known domain registrars is Go Daddy, but you can also access this information at the ICANN website. ICANN is a particularly useful site, because they are in charge of approving all other domain name registrars. Simply type in the domain name you are thinking of and in seconds you will know whether or not it is available.

It may be that the domain you want is taken, but do not give up hope. It is actually common practice for people to buy potentially desirable domain names in hopes that someone with serious aspirations for that domain will pay more money to own it. If your dream domain is taken, visit WHOIS dot net to find out who the owner is. There is a fair chance that whoever owns this domain can be persuaded to sell it to you.

Now, a word of caution is in order. It can be tempting to buy a domain that you know another company holds trademark rights to and try to extort money out of them before handing it over. This is a dangerous mistake, and there is significant legal precedent for what happens to people who attempt this.

The reason lies in something called the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Proceeding, or UDRP. When you buy any domain name from any registrar, you agree to attend these proceedings if someone asserts trademark rights over the domain you bought. Every registrar includes this stipulation in their Terms of Service because ICANN mandates it. So for example, if for some reason Sony did not have a website, you could not buy Sony.com and set up your own website there. Sony would be fully able to come after you in court and demand that you give them that domain name.

An eye-opening e-book called “Your Future in Internet Scams” makes this point clear. Not only is a UDRP proceeding much cheaper and faster than actually suing someone, they tend to favor the trademark holder heavily: you as the domain holder will lose 70% of the time if someone asserts trademark rights over your domain. For this reason it is best to avoid the hassle and just come up with a distinct domain of your own to use.

In closing, the essential thing to know about trademarking a domain name is that it must be distinct. The more readily people associate your domain with you and not other things, the better chances your domain has of gaining and keeping trademark status.

First Ask Your Web Hosting Provider These Questions

You have finally decided to get the services of a web hosting company to host your website. You have your domain name already registered. You should know that webhosting is not like buying groceries. There are a lot of factors that you need to assess. It would all depend on how alert and cautious you are in bagging the most suitable deal for you.

Here are some questions to ask your prospective web host provider, which would greatly help you.

1. Is there a reliable and sound customer service system available?

Due to the great number of web host providers you can find online, you cannot deny that there will be some of them who just are not able to assist their clients properly. As an owner of a website or a webmaster, you would need to know just how the provider fares in this factor. Try to send some pre-sales inquiries on something that you want to know about their service and check the response period. They should be able to reply within 24 hours. Excellent customer support and the extent they would go to educate you properly on everything you need to know counts a lot.

2. Does your prospective provider explain their stand on server systems, technology, back-up schedules and data centers?

An absolute must for web host providers would be servers, as these form their basic infrastructure. Their back-up systems should be scheduled to automatically run as the servers in use are backed up – some as often as daily. They should mention what technology they use and should have dependable back-up systems as well as traceable data centers. They should be sufficiently equipped for any technical difficulty.

3. What is the financial standing of the web host provider?

This would be to make sure that you would not be doing business with a fly-by-night company. A financially stable company would mean that they have a strong management that would be able to provide better services compared to others.

4. What are the available services?

Make sure that you have taken note of the scope of services that the web host provider is willing to provide. It would be advisable to get a provider that would be able to give everything you would be needing for your convenience. So that if ever you would be planning to expand your simple website to a website that is full of lots of content, they would be able to have the range to fill your requirements. Check if they would be able to provide you various application platforms, intuitive control panels, scripts, forums and other tools that you might be needing down the road.

5. Does your potential web host offer reliable hosting with a good up-time guarantee?

This is important to know if the hosting provider would be able to provide excellent up-time by efficient maintenance and management.

Answering Your Dedicated Server Questions

So you’re in the market to host some data on the Internet. We’ve all seen the pop-up adds listing web hosting as low as $5 a month. But what do you really get for that fee? Usually you get shared space on a companies’ server, with your hosting battling it out with others on the same machine.

What if you have specific needs or non standard requirements for your hosting? Do you have concerns that poor performance of your hosting will affect your web presence? Are there concerns that other account users may access or damage your information? If so, perhaps a dedicated server is right for you.

How does it work?

Dedicated servers differ from the standard home computer primarily by means of the operating system. Specialized versions of Windows, optimized for network operations, and UNIX are utilized by dedicated servers.

Whereas your home computer becomes a word processor, a video game system, a check book balancer, and so on, a dedicated server utilizes a minimal user interface, allowing the majority of its work to occur on the network. CPUs are similar, as are memory and storage systems; however servers tend to have vast amounts of each.

Why dedicate a server?

In the hosting market, it is not uncommon for a service provider to rent server space to dozens, if not more, accounts on the same server. Depending on usage and number of requests, some accounts may suffer as the server reaches its limits.

Service providers also determine the hardware and software configuration of the machine. If you have requirements for some piece of software they have not installed, you may be out of luck. Dedicating a server puts you in control. From the hardware to the software, you choose the components that your server will employ.

Do I need special equipment to make a dedicated server?

Yes and no. It all depends on the type of performance you expect from your server. Older business systems have been recycled into company mail and web servers, as long as the users don’t overload the capacity of the system, everything works well.

By today’s standards, a typical dedicated server will have multiple processors, large amounts of redundant storage, and lots of memory. Additionally, a symmetrical high speed connection is required, or information will cause the server to bog down.

Do I need a dedicated server?

If you are interested in providing information to a large client base, then you may need a dedicated server. If the information you are processing contains confidential items, such as personal or credit information, then you probably should have a dedicated server.

Whether or not you choose to rent a server or host your own depends or your capability and budget. Owning a server will be less expensive, but means that you are responsible for keeping it up and running. Some individuals and companies will choose to rent a server, and pay someone else to handle the headaches.

Questions to Ask a Web Hosting Provider

When selecting a web host, you will no doubt have many questions before you finally choose the correct hosting plan. Watch out for companies that walk a gray line when it comes to the truth such as posting stats that are simply untrue. Their goal is just to sell you a service and make a sale Doing this over and over again, your customers will not be satisfied and eventually leave. Furthermore, word gets out about the web hosting company’s tactics and customer experiences.

Although, a web hosting company offers low prices, it doesn’t mean it will provide the right services and plans that a specific client requires. The customer may need a feature to achieve their objectives. Customer service should answer all questions so customers will clearly understand.

Customers need to be able to do comparisons on plans and features by knowing the basics of web hosting? There are several factors when selecting a web hosting provider that you need to consider. Here are a few important topics of web hosting to keep in mind when going with or without a certain web-hosting company:

Email Accounts: more than likely it is desirable to have the ability to create more than one email account with a web hosting company is quite desirable. So, be sure to ask how many email accounts are offered in your plan.
Will they provide a catch-all account? This feature captures spam by deleting it to a trash folder?
Are there any limitations in regards to disk space and bandwidth? Ask the potential web host how many sub-domains or add-on domains are allowed. Maybe you can host multiple domains on one account.
Typically, most hosts allow up to 5 add-on domains or sub-domains. How much hard disk space will you receive? Currently 50mb is the low end standard. Don’t settle for less.
How much maximum bandwidth? This is typically 2GB for one account. Is there any type of back-up protection or additional fees to retrieve these backups, if offered?
If a web hosting offers more than what is listed above. They should be in the running as a good candidate for your web hosting plan.

Just by knowing a little bit about related web hosting areas before asking customer service gives you the best chance. In the end, the customer service rep. feels better about communicating to someone who has some hosting knowledge. It makes their job easier. Moreover, the assistance from an excellent customer service dept, may sway you to go with their company or another. It’s your choice whether it be for a personal website or a e-commerce site.

The 3 Questions you Must Answer Before Buying a Web Hosting Account

Never think that the phrase “Web Host” belongs only to computer geeks. Even a non IT techie like you can seek web hosting service to your business success. Web hosting is one of those things that everyone has most likely heard about but few people have a good handle on the specifics of the process. So you need a web host to have your own web site or page right? But what does web hosting mean?

A web hosting is a service that allows users to post web pages to the Internet. This is a business that provides the technologies and services needed for websites to be viewed on the web. Well, let’s talk who the web hosts are?

Web hosts are companies that provide space on a server for hosting a website. They own large space on the server, which they share it to their customers… providing Internet connectivity, typically in a data center.

Firstly you must answer the question which type of web hosting are you looking for? If you want to run a single web site, shared hosting will be the right for your needs. For those who own multiple domains it will be better to buy reseller account or look around the web hosting industry and find some hosting plan which allows more domains under single account. If you want to drive an advanced business and need more system resources than acceptable on shared server you will need your own, dedicated or virtual private server.

Some important things to look for when you are hosting a website are:

24X7 hour technical support:

When hunting for a Web Host make sure that they offer 24X7 hour technical support. Test the technical support offered by different companies before you sign up.

But how?

Send an email to several web-hosting companies with a question or two. If the company responds quickly, and gives relatively relevant answer then it is a good sign that they will rapidly respond to your needs as a customer.

Bandwidth:

This is an important issue while choosing your web host. Your best bet is to find a provider which has at least a T-3 backbone connection. A T-3 Internet connection can pass data of speeds up to 45 Mbps.

Traffic analysis report:

A good traffic analysis report is necessary in order to keep an eye on how many visitors your web site is receiving and where these visitors are coming from. Some companies offer excellent statistics programs as standard, while others offer basic statistics but you have to pay extra for an advanced service.

If you use these criteria in pursuit of prospective hosting packages, you will never come across nightmares on choosing right web host to your web page. Now it is prime time to pick a good web hosting package.

36 Questions To Ask Your Web Host Before You Buy

Technical Support:

Technical validation should be readily available. Your average hold time should not exceed a couple of minutes. If the hold instant for support is long, this means that there are a lot of problems with the product or there support is understaffed.

1. How strong is their technical validation division?
2. What do properties provide?
3. When are they available?
4. Does tech support cost extra?

Security:

The website hosting servers plans to be hosted at a remote location amidst multiple backup across multitude of locations. The servers should also be double firewall protected. If the websites are hosted in that brand of an environment, it means that you are protected against any power failure, natural disaster, or individuals trying to steal your information. You can check how many servers a company is hosting by asking them for the address of one of the companies they host. Then go to http://whois.sc, and watch up that name. Whois will tell you how many ones they are hosting. Use a organization that is hosting several thousand websites.

5. How secure is the site?
6. What type of protection do they offer?
7. How can they insure that unauthorized users will not compromise the integrity of your Web site?

Storage:

The amount of storage your website hosting offers is tied to how large your website can become. You want to make ensured too you have enough space to not merely to build your current website, but to expand in the future.

8. How much storage do they offer?
9. A typical Web site uses between 20-30 MB.
10. Do they offer enough extra megabytes to for your business to grow into? 100MB is a good begun point.

Domains:

Getting a Domain name for your business is one of the most important things you could do.

11. Will the hosting company register your Domain name?
12. How long would it take?
13. Is there any extra value to you?

Design:

There are 3 basic website design options. 1) Hire a web developer to design the whole website. 2) A template solution that is inexpensive, but modifications are limited. 3) A table founded solution at which the initial content is provided by the hosting association but everything combined with the entire layout can be changed. Make sure which type you are purchasing and if this is the correct solution for you.

14. Do they have a builder that you can manage easily?
15. What type of computer background do you crisis to design your site?
16. Do you hold internal control over content and updates?

Email:

There are 2 kinds of email. The first is POP 3. This email sort is attached to the domain name, and the email can be viewed based on information from a web mail Internet browser window, or downloaded to a program such as Outlook or Eudora. The second email type is a forwarding address or email alias, where you have an email address that is @YourDomain, but it forwards to a different email address. POP 3 is usually larger amount of desirable while you can view your email on a variety of applications, and it strengthens your organization image.

17. How a good number of email aliases comes with your package?
18. Will they have your domain name in them for a more professional appearance?
19. What is the cost to add extra emails?
20. Are there any additional costs?

Search Engine Optimization:

You provided put up your website to the searching the web engines, this type of as Google, close to once a month. This will windfall to rank you even better in the search rankings

21. Are search engine engine submissions included in your package?
22. How performs it work?
23. Do you undergo internal control over content and updates?

Cost:

Make sure there are no hidden costs. Some companies will give you a low price appreciating that they can charge you for additional services latter on.

24. What are the market worth involved?
25. What are the initial setup fees and what do you get exactly?
26. What are the monthly maintenance fees are what do they cover?
27. Are there any additional charges?
28. If so, what are they and why?

Contract:

29. Am I locked to a contract?
31. May I cancel at anytime?
32. Are there any penalty fees for switching or closing my account?
33. What happens to my content?

Value:

34. What makes them better than their competition?
35. Do they forward extra features, storage space, better technical support?
36. What spot on sets them apart?

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