Web Site Hosting

[Clay]

This may not be relevant to everyone, but it's something that's come up for me and could hit other people down the road.

The hosting company that is hosting a web site I built for someone has recently had a serious degredation in service. Because this company is on the other side of the country from where I am, I am limited to e-mail and telephone communication. Of the two, only e-mail appears to be available as a support medium; the phone is always busy.

So my dilema is that I must find somebody local.  Somebody who, if things blow up, won't be able to resort to hiding behind a phone and e-mail because they'll still run into me at church, the hardware, the grocery store.  I even have two companies that meet this criteria (plus some technical criteria of my own).

I'm wondering what things I need to be looking for.  I have a list of my own, but I'm sure there's things that I'm missing:

* Data backup & restore procedures
* How are server upgrades and changes handled
* Does the company own its own equipment
* How is technical support handled
* How easy is it to speak to company principles
* How easy is it to speak to someone who can get something done
* What sort of network redundancy is there
* When a security problem is detected, what action is taken?
* How about when that correction means that certain features will no longer be available to customers?

[Victor Gijsbers]

What do you want on your server? Just a webpage, or something traffic-intensive?

I mean, if you just need a few MBs of webspace, you could get it anywhere, for free.

[Clay]

I mean, if you just need a few MBs of webspace, you could get it anywhere, for free.

If all I needed was a couple of MB for a few static pages, I wouldn't be in this situation at all. I'd probably just host it off my own server, where I'm already hosting plenty of web pages.

I need a database and PHP. Most importantly, I need reliable server management. I can support the bandwidth and the technical aspects on my own system, and that's what I'll be doing until I find the company that can fit my needs.  Its the issues of regular management and upgrades that are killing me. I know from experience that it requires staff to manage something like that properly. It takes a big operation and customer base to do it profitably, or I would be offering such services myself. I want to focus my efforts on designing and building the software for the sites instead.

Clay

[Victor Gijsbers]

Ok, it wasn't clear from your first post what you needed. I'm afraid I can't help you at all, sorry.