When it comes to web hosting, there are a lot of misconceptions. In some cases, there are things that your host doesn’t want you to know, and you may have to really dig if you want to find the truth. Here are the top two things that your web hosting company will never tell you.
1. There is no such thing as unlimited bandwidth or disk space. This is a common misconception that is used to sell web space. The consumer immediately thinks – “Cool, I get infinity amount of space, I can put up anything I want!” This gets the web hosting company a sale and the customer is never the wiser. In reality, there is no such thing as unlimited bandwidth or space.
All servers have limits, and there is no connection in the world that is going to allow a hosting company to send zillions of megabytes in bandwidth. Everything has a limit, and in the case of these two items, there are definite limits that even a hosting company can’t surmount.
What This Really Means: Most site owners will never exceed 500 megs of disk space. The vast majority of sites will never see more than 1 gig of transfer every month. A hosting company is banking on this. They’ll pull you in with the offer of unlimited space, knowing full well that you will never even come close to needing a high amount of either one.
For the site owners that do have large sites or that need a lot of transfer, reality usually crashes down when a hosting company either pulls the site or sends them a nice big bill for the overages.
If you want the truth about how much space and transfer you really have, look at their hosting agreement. They’ll state (they have to) exactly how much space you can really use before they’ll ask you to upgrade.
2. There is no such thing as 100% uptime. If there was a server on this planet that never went down, you can bet that everyone would be using it. Although a company can use this as a selling point, there is no way to guarantee that a server will never go down.
What This Really Means: Chances are, the server is probably pretty reliable. If it does go down, it may only be for a few minutes and you’ll never be the wiser. It sounds nice, but there is simply no way that a server can be up 24/7 365 and never once have a hiccup.
When it comes to web hosting, there are a lot of misconceptions. In some cases, there are things that your host doesn’t want you to know, and you may have to really dig if you want to find the truth. Here are the top two things that your web hosting company will never tell you.
1. There is no such thing as unlimited bandwidth or disk space. This is a common misconception that is used to sell web space. The consumer immediately thinks – “Cool, I get infinity amount of space, I can put up anything I want!” This gets the web hosting company a sale and the customer is never the wiser. In reality, there is no such thing as unlimited bandwidth or space.
All servers have limits, and there is no connection in the world that is going to allow a hosting company to send zillions of megabytes in bandwidth. Everything has a limit, and in the case of these two items, there are definite limits that even a hosting company can’t surmount.
What This Really Means: Most site owners will never exceed 500 megs of disk space. The vast majority of sites will never see more than 1 gig of transfer every month. A hosting company is banking on this. They’ll pull you in with the offer of unlimited space, knowing full well that you will never even come close to needing a high amount of either one.
For the site owners that do have large sites or that need a lot of transfer, reality usually crashes down when a hosting company either pulls the site or sends them a nice big bill for the overages.
If you want the truth about how much space and transfer you really have, look at their hosting agreement. They’ll state (they have to) exactly how much space you can really use before they’ll ask you to upgrade.
2. There is no such thing as 100% uptime. If there was a server on this planet that never went down, you can bet that everyone would be using it. Although a company can use this as a selling point, there is no way to guarantee that a server will never go down.
What This Really Means: Chances are, the server is probably pretty reliable. If it does go down, it may only be for a few minutes and you’ll never be the wiser. It sounds nice, but there is simply no way that a server can be up 24/7 365 and never once have a hiccup.