This reseller (www.virtualassistance.net/webhosting.html) claims that, “Since April 1999 when I signed up with AAces, not once have their servers been down.” Is this possible/probable? (I’m kind of suspicious, since I can’t find a definite number for their bandwidth allowance.) What is the best way for a potential customer to get uptime and network reliability information for a prospective host?

“Since April 1999 when I signed up with AAces, not once have their servers been down.” I would think clarification is due here. Do they mean there has been no UNplanned downtime or do they mean there has been no downtime at all?

If the host has honestly _not been down once_ for two years I would avoid the host at all costs, as it would have been impossible for them to of made vital software upgrades/installations and/or specific security patches. Which equates to outdated servers begging to be hacked.

ooppss forgot the rest of the question... What is the best way for a potential customer to get uptime and network reliability information for a prospective host? One place to 'start' is asking the host, and then follow-up by asking a number of their current clients (as well as past clients if you can find them). From there see if the responses match up accordingly. You'll also want to monitor the host a bit using third parties such as http://www.NetMechanic.com

If the host has public forums or a list of clients for you to communicate with that's all the better and asking in forums such as these will usually bring responses from both...

Note that a host's uptime reports from a year ago do not always dictate how they are doing _now_

Thanks Deb!
I think the monitoring software will be a good investment...

Originally posted by Deb
I would think clarification is due here. Do they mean there has been no UNplanned downtime or do they mean there has been no downtime at all?

If the host has honestly _not been down once_ for two years I would avoid the host at all costs, as it would have been impossible for them to of made vital software upgrades/installations and/or specific security patches. Which equates to outdated servers begging to be hacked.

Great answer, but how does applying upgrades to servers and routers affect your uptime? When hosts say uptime, they are generally not talking about each server, but rather they are referring to the network connectivity to the Internet.

If you count each server, then how do you count new servers? Do you have downtime as soon as a new server arrives in the data facility? Or only after plugging them in to the power source, or network maybe? Are you, as a facilities provider experiencing downtime when you reboot an individual server? IMHO, I sure hope not.

Are you, as a facilities provider experiencing downtime when you reboot an individual server? IMHO, I sure hope not. *gasp* By all means YES if the server is down it's downtime! Ask any Site Owner that can not get to their web site if they consider it "downtime".

If the resources are within the host's control and they are not functioning in such a way that will not allow the web site to be delivered, and it's not planned maintenance, then by all means I consider it downtime and it should be counted as such. It should not matter whether it was a router, or bandwidth pipe, or server, or spilled Mountain Dew on the switch IMHO.

I've seen one to many servers go "down" and I could never imagine telling the clients "sorry, the server was broken but since the good ol' DS-3 was up we're not responsible."

I never realized anyone saw it differently -- This is shocking to me. I guess those searching for a host have another question they need to add to their list if it's not there already -- "How exactly does your uptime guarantee work? What exactly constitutes downtime?"

It almost makes me want to expand on http://HostHelp.com/guarantee.php (a site I wish I had more time to work on...)