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Red Flags you Look for on Low End Talk
ForwardWeb
Member, Host Rep
in General
Hello Everyone,
Was just curious to know, what are some of the red flags you look for (if any) when purchasing web hosting services from providers you are not too familiar with? Some things I look for:
- Length of time domain name has been registered.
- Quick Google/Bing search of the company to see if there is overwhelming negative feed-back.
- Quality of website (does the website look like it was put together in 5 mins)?
- Contact info, is there a physical address associated with the business? What about a phone number?
Let me know if you have any to add to the list.
Comments
Check if they have a provider tag, click on their profile and look at some of the threads they opened at the beginning. Speaks volumes.
Seeing how well they perform with this post from @jtk is a good start
Personally I check their WhoIS, who they host their own website with, public reviews if any and make a ticket asking something basic to see how fast their support are.
If Whois info is private and the domain is from namecheap which allows anonymous registerations via tor and purchases via bitcoin, avoid like plague.
I only buy from a providers that has gotten at least 3 votes / honorable mentions in previous provider polls.
My big red flag is just a lack of willingness to identify themselves or be known by name. I don't mind WHOIS privacy, for example, if they make it easily known who they are and their identity seems even remotely legitimate.
Law/Politics/Gender students.
I look on WHT. If they have the corporate tag there, I know I'm safe.
GVH did have a corporate account on WHT.
I also check if they're registered as a company in the respective register of commerce.
You missed the irony part
I avoid the ones that molest kids, but maybe that's just me.
Personally I avoid the ones that have spelling mistakes in their posts and/or do not get sarcasm. That, for me, identifies that there will be a language barrier in case I ever need anything in a ticket.
Yeah, didn't notice it was raindog's comment And ironically OP is a corporate member on WHT
Hey @FernGullyGraphics - you've been in web hosting for...about 200 years or so? Long time. Seen you on WHT for years...what brings you to LET?
BTW my phone got redir'd to m.ferngullygraphics.com which appears to be down. Main site is fine.
For me, a red flag is the members of the WHT clique that always seem to ask what is your budget (hey its business my budget is low and my expectations are high - do you really expect any other answer?), ask did you review the offer section (knowing its loaded with a certain clique of offers), and condone EIG (and to a lesser extent GoDaddy) hate even though they havent had services for years and can't even articulate what GoDaddy offers these days. And also be regaled by stories of past greatness in the music world on how to run a business.
You should check the offer section.
Or includes the keyword "nuggets"
So ... No pizza ?
Eh, details.
For example: I'd never let @francisco date my sister, but I'd happily let him host my precious data (if those slices ever make it across that big bucket of water)
You almost got me with the Corporate Tag comment as well, good one. To answer your question, WHT is still a great place to converse about web hosting, but has been a little slow lately in terms of topics. Figured Lowend Talk would be a good place to keep conversations going as I like to stay active on the web hosting forums.
Thanks for the note about the m.ferngullygraphics.com. That sub domain had been disabled for sometime and there should not be any redirects (seems to be fine on my mobile). Have you visited our website before? I am wondering if maybe some type of cache is at work? I'll take a closer look when I get a chance.
Company registrations being something to look for is hilarious because it doesn't necessarily provide any protection for the customer. How many pump-and-dumps were done with a $100 - 200 LLC and virtual office?
I can get a twilio phone number an international mail po box ( I know of at least 3 companies) that allows me to use a po box. Can register in Wyoming or Delaware or texas as LLC and noone will know my name (just the registered agent). Hence anyone anywhere could do that. So the only way to know they are legit is time in business, reviews from other users, do they file federal and state tax paperwork on time, etc etc. So you have to dig up info on some of these brands. Put website tos and aup snippets into google - see if they rip off someone elses text. Go into the theme source and look for phrases the template builders leave in for naming sections and look for them as well on google. Search the IP and see what else comes up. ARE MOST OF THEIR POSTS OFFERS OR ACTUAL WORTHWHILE COMMENTS.
You forgot to include "What is Your Diskspace and Bandwidth Requirement?". Although I must admit, sometimes asking for a budget is necessary. I do tend to shake my head when I see the same posts on the same thread asking the same questions you listed. Seems to be all you see on WHT nowadays.
Why.. why would you quote that and then tag Fran? I needed to triple check what you wrote there.
Also, I for one would love for @Francisco to date my sister.. best brother-in-law evar!
I honestly don't even know what's going on in this thread :P
Francisco
I think @Aldryic finally found his own cock under all that belly fat. To be fair to him, it's hard to see. Can he date your sister?
Deformed images on sites show some idiots inside.