If you’re an average user who happens to have a website, you’ve probably heard about “overselling” in reference to internet hosting companies, but aren’t sure exactly what it means. This term basically means that the host has sold more bandwidth and/or space than the server can effectively handle. In other words, think of a five lane highway with only one lane open three miles ahead. It’s bunched up, slow, and causes crashes.
Each server a hosting company sets up can only handle so much bandwidth before there is a “bottleneck” effect. Too much data will be going in and coming back out through a limited portal. When this happens, the sites slow down considerably if the server doesn’t lock up completely. Most of the time, visitors to your site will get a timed out or server is too busy message.
Considering that most people want to see the site they searched for right now, they’ll rarely come back to see if the server isn’t overloaded later.
Unlimited space does not exist
Also, there is only so much space a server can accommodate - basically how many hard drives the server’s motherboard can support. If there are two terabytes of hard drive space on the server, then the hosting company selling unlimited space to ten thousand clients will eventually overflow. In practical terms, there is technically not unlimited space. If ten thousand customers use one gigabyte of space each, the server would need to have more than ten terabytes. Most servers have nowhere near two terabytes.
The old saying, “You get what you pay for,” applies in this situation. Even worse is the fact that many of the more expensive hosting companies are doing it. In an effort to maximize revenues, and lower costs, they are selling more “website” than they can deliver. Even service can be a sign of “overselling” a hosting plan. Imagine a thousand customers, and one or two technical and customer support personnel. How long will it take to get your issue resolved? If your site goes down, waiting for weeks to get someone to fix it can cost you thousands if you’re a business owner.
So before choosing a hosting plan for your site, do a lot of research. It’s easy to find out that Godaddy.com and Yahoo Business hosting plans aren’t that good. There are hundreds of other sites out there who do the same things - slow and overloaded servers, poor customer and technical support, and changing costs at any time which seems convenient to them. Don’t get caught with your pants down.
For your money, you deserve to get what you want and need from a hosting company. Settling for the cheapest or easiest is a sure way to drive potential visitors and customers away.
You wouldn’t go to a hospital with three hundred patients and four rooms, so why should you do the same for your website?
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