Choosing a Web Host

I did the homework. Speed101 uses IPowerWeb. - Matt (read story)

October 2, 2003.  Matt Weaver

Today I decided to share the brief story on my selection of web hosts.  I'm doing so because I'm now vouching for the very host of Speed101.  I'm vouching for my host IPowerWeb because today ABCNEWS.com picked up a story about the speed bikes and I've seen more traffic on the site by 9 am PST than I normally see in a month.  I'm sure it will subside, but I've decided I better put up my first "ad" on Speed101.com - an ad I can heartily vouch for.  If traffic continues at these unusual levels keeping this "hobby" site may require a little more bandwidth.  As is, I can handle about 3000 unique "average" Speed101 visitors daily (text, photos, videos) for the 30 gigabyte/month bandwidth my $7.95/month at IPowerWeb provides.

If you decide you want to host a website, or transfer a website you already have, I recommend IPowerWeb.  If you go for it - I invite you to click the IPowerWeb "ad" link at Speed101.  You'll help enable the adventure of Speed101 and some amazing bicycles and exciting human achievements, not to mention explore new ground on the upper-limits of energy-efficiency for a human-carrying land vehicle.

Speed101 normally gets 150 to 200 new individual visitors daily from well over 60 countries around the world.  That fascinates me, but even that was blown through the roof today - possibly over 6000 visitors by 9 am PST today.  The www.ABCNEWS.com story was #3 in the "ABCNEWS.com top emailed to friends" articles at 9am PST, 10am PST and then #4 by 11am and finally off the list by noon PST, and onto the "24 hour" list at #15 last time I looked.  I'm not used to such things.  Big world out there, and a fledgling newbie website that I ache over fixing up way beyond where it is.

I did take some thought on choosing web hosts and continue to keep abreast.  I've studied 100's of web hosts.  I've used over six hosts and spent a full year each on three hosts.  I was once hosted by a "local" provider for a year, then a "big name" provider for over a year, and now to iPowerWeb for a year and onto my next year still with them.  For the scope of this website, and probably 99% of the websites in existence, iPowerWeb soundly trounces all other providers I know of.  Here are some of the reasons why:

• Price - Bottom line getting what I need in a very acceptable and justifiable price-range.  Not long ago companies would extract 10 to 50 times as much $ for the same or lesser service as I receive from IPowerWeb.  Hosting a "hobby" website is now very viable.
• Bandwidth - 30 GB/month.  If you ever want any video or photos - you can readily eat up 2-5GB.  30 is very good.  I may use all 30 this month given Jim Goldman's www.TechTv.com story that appeared in www.ABCNEWS.com.  Most hosts limit you to 1, 2, 3, 5 GB (in that range) - Marginal.  Those that say "unlimited" usually have "fine print" that allows them to back off and not honor true delivery of high bandwidth (else they'd go out of business with bandwidth hungry customers flocking their way).  I can elaborate on how they "fail to deliver" but it gets technical.  You can also increase bandwidth beyond 30 GB without paying a high premium.  I do not recall the exact rate else I'd quote it now - suffice to say many sites offer 1 - 5 GB, then gouge royally if you go over.
• Filespace - 500 MB is plenty for nearly any sizeable website.  More space is quite pointless, but you can have it if you need it.
• Established Service / Big "Pipes" going to well-balanced web servers.  Some web providers lack sufficiently large and redundant connections to the internet backbones.  IPowerWeb has both.  Without them you are left with an array of uncertainties.
• Streaming file capability - some web servers don't handle streaming (Real Audio, Video, etc...)  IPowerWeb does.
• MySQL database - I'm not using it yet, but access to a well-established database on the server is essential as you get more advanced.
• Secure Server - Normally you're out at least an extra $100/year for your own SSL certificate to do secure transactions.  IPowerWeb has done it for you.
• Good Basics Statistics and Raw Statistics Data downloadable - Get neat charts and graphs galore about all your site visitors and page hits, entry/exit etc...  The raw stats can be used in other analysis software if you're real serious with this stuff.
• Email - 300 POP mailboxes - Plenty.  Essentially no constraints.  Many web hosts provide a scarce number of emails, then a high premium to add more.  I use over 10 "speed101.com" emails for various functions and for friends who want "speed101.com" accounts.
• No Banner Ads - Some Web Hosts offer great rates, even "free" - but the "true price" quickly proves too high.
• Many other reasons - I can elaborate, but I've said enough for now.

Other notes:

• Registering Domain Names - IpowerWeb will do it for free.  Otherwise I recommend www.GoDaddy.com - Better service.  No point to pay 2-4 times as much for literally the same thing.
• High Bandwidth - bigger boy stuff - like 400GB/month, 100's of websites - Full Servers - Check with IPowerWeb, or else Check out www.rackshack.net - that's the best I know of.

All the best in your website adventures!

-Matt Weaver

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