QuickerSite

QuickerSite's preferred hosting partner is DiscountASP.net.

There are many hosting companies out there. They all offer very complete and sometimes even sensational packages. How about a hosting plan of 250 GB of disk space and 1000 Gigabyte traffic for somewhere around 10$ month? Be aware that these are irrational numbers. The truth is that 95% of their customers only use 50 MB and have no traffic at all :). That’s why they are bluffing and they get away with it, ... in most cases.

However, there are some important elements that you should take into consideration when choosing a hosting partner for your QuickerSite(s). Make sure you ask the support-department the following questions and make sure they deliver CLEAR answers to these questions before you order any package:

(even in case you don't understand all questions below, you should address them to the support department of your hosting company)

• Will I be able to use ASP 3.0, VBScript and ASP.NET (2.0+) on Windows Servers (no IIS clones!)?
• Will I be able to use a global.asa file in the root of my hosting plan?
• Will I be able to place my Access database files in a private folder? (or do I need support to do this for me?)
• Will I be able to set file/folder permissions in my hosting plan? (or do I need support to do this for me?)
• Will I be able to enable default documents for my website? (or do I need support to do this for me?)
• Will I be able to set a custom 404 error page in my hosting plan? (or do I need support to do this for me?)
• Will I be able to point multiple domains to my hosting plan? (like www.site.com, www.site.org, www.site.eu , etc - some customers register 10+ domains for their site - … (or do I need support to do this for me?)
• Will my website run in an isolated application pool in IIS?

The answer to these questions should all be yes, and the least you need support, the better.

Most hosting companies offer 30 or more days money back guarantee. That is very useful. Because you can easily evaluate a hosting solution in a couple of days.

What you could do after you have made the choice for a specific hoster:

• On http://www.yougetsignal.com/tools/web-sites-on-web-server/  you can easily list all sites that are hosted on the same server (IP). In case your machine hosts many more sites (>300), your site will likely go down on a regular base. You should also check the websites listed there. Html-driven websites will not cause major problems. But in case you see many asp(x) and php driven sites amongst them, your site is likely going to have a hard time.
   
• You can setup several ping-services that check on a regular base if your site is available. After a couple of days you get a clear idea on the network uptime and whether the web server is (un)stable. You can create a free account on http://www.alertbot.com, http://www.siteuptime.com, http://www.internetseer.com, http://www.montastic.com or any other website-monitoring-provider!

Choosing the right hosting partner is crucial for the success of your site. Take your time. Don't forget that once you have chosen a specific solution, you will find it difficult to go away, because there is a lot involved when going online (DNS settings, Email settings, ...).