It's a good question, though probably not as impoortant as you might think. It is the sites that consume more than the alloted share of resources that typically have the problem. They can be shut down without notice becasue of it.

Some hosts will move such accounts to servers where there are fewer other large usage accounts so they can remain "good neighbors".

My last host did that for my account shortly after I moved to them. I had told them that my forums were quite popular and while, I am more prone to understatement than exaggeration, they quickly found out that I wasn't exaggerating. They moved my account and I noticed there were far fewer accounts sharing the same server (they had mistakenly given me full access to all the other account on the server, including read and write permissions, so I could see all the others. There were a lot less after the move.

You have more important concerns to deal with than this one. I think you'll find it to be of little consequence (unless your site is one of htsoe resource hogs).

I'm conducting my first search for a web host, and I'm finding an awful lot of issues to sort through! I'm conducting this search for a non-profit organization which is building a fairly simple site and who is willing to pay for virtual shared server service, so as not to 'cheapen' it's message by surrounding it with advertisements. If I'm reading things correctly it sounds like once you've identified your short list of vendors that meet your requirements and have sifted through people's reviews and opinions of those vendors, you're still left with the 'lottery' in regards to who you would be sharing a server with. If we get place on a server with one or two 'hogs', then my service gets slow and my clients get frustrated and leave.

So my question is, what is reasonable to ask a potential host about who I would be sharing a server with, and what is reasonable to demand in that regard?

Thanks, Jazzie

I agree with Duster...and you can probably make the assessment yourself . In general the bargain basement hosts will place more sites on one server causing yours to slow down. Not to offend anyone here (I said in general!) but if you pay $5.95 for a site, you probably should expect delays. Pay $10 or more for someone not offering unlimited everything and you should be ok.
Read the Terms of Service (TOS), if you find a section limiting CPU cycles or CPU seconds, you should feel more confident your site won't be affected because that host is monitoring for hogs. If you don't see it odds on someone will abuse the server.

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Chris Marks
KBS Web Hosting (http://www.netfronts.com) http://www.netfronts.com

[This message has been edited by marksy (edited 07-01-2000).]

Thank you, both Duster and Marksy! There certainly is a lot to decipher here!

I agree that is important to understand that you get what you pay for, Marksy.

So can I summarize your two comments by saying that, in determining whether or not a potential host is a good one, I should verify that they have a section in their TOS limiting CPU cycles/seconds, and then I can expect that they will provide the necessary protection from the hogs?

[This message has been edited by Jazzie (edited 07-01-2000).]

[This message has been edited by Jazzie (edited 07-01-2000).]

A lot of good hosts have terrible TOS (in that they are not accurate representations of the company).

A better indicator would be not to look for hosts with too cheap a plan A host offering service for $5 will attract a lot of cheap accounts and will probably crowd even more on a server to compensate for the lower return (than hosts offering $20 plans). I've read of as many as 500 accounts on a server, even more.

I have guides for choosing a host compiled from what I've learned, including from forums like this one. You can see it on the right side menu at http://techcellence.net One of the points I make is especially apropo here, "Sometimes cheap is too cheap".

Even though you're on the opposite sid eof the resource hog issue, I would look for a host that discloes limitations of bandwidth and cpu usage. The chances are better that any host that is honest and fair to high usage accounts will treat all its customers fairly.

Hi!

I am the owner of ForgetMonthlyFees.com and what we do is we move our big accounts to a server that can suite them. If their account get way out of hand, then we insist on them getting their own dedicated server.

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Regards,
Jay Betancourt
http://www.ForgetMonthlyFees.com
Never pay for web hosting again!