Host factors and security ?

[Henry Kolesnik]

I'm new to making an getting a FP 2003 web site hosted. Right now I'm
leaning toward powweb.com but have a few questions. I've noticed that many
of the hosters tell you that they have hundreds email accounts and email
aliases. In my case I'm going to try to sell off a bunch of personal things
on eBay with a link to my new site showing other stuff that will be
available later. For viewers of my new site that want to contact me I was
going to include my regular email address. Then I started to wonder if this
will open a bigger door to spammers. I'm guessing it's a bad idea to leave
my personal email address on my site, and have legitimate queries respond
to my site. If this is the case what do I look for in a hoster? Are there
any other things besides, reliability, support, storage and traffic
bandwidth?
tnx

 

[BanPro NET : www.banpro.net]

I'm new to making an getting a FP 2003 web site hosted. Right now I'm
leaning toward powweb.com but have a few questions. I've noticed that many
of the hosters tell you that they have hundreds email accounts and email
aliases. In my case I'm going to try to sell off a bunch of personal things
on eBay with a link to my new site showing other stuff that will be
available later. For viewers of my new site that want to contact me I was
going to include my regular email address. Then I started to wonder if this
will open a bigger door to spammers. I'm guessing it's a bad idea to leave
my personal email address on my site, and have legitimate queries respond
to my site. If this is the case what do I look for in a hoster? Are there
any other things besides, reliability, support, storage and traffic
bandwidth?
tnx

Henry, it's good that you are taking the time to research before signing
up with the first host you find. Many people do that, or pick a host
simply on price and there are groups and forums full of their rants when
the host provided poor service and support, or in some cases disappeared
without a word.

Yes, placing your email address on web pages will increase the level of
spam you receive each day. It's a fact that spammers use scripts which
harvest email addresses from web pages.

The host you choose should have some type of spam blocking software
installed on their servers which you can utilize to filter this out, in
addition they should be able to provide you with several options for
placing a contact form onto your site which will allow visitors to reach
you without having to publish your email address.

Beyond email, you are correct that reliability, account allocations for
disk space and bandwidth and the level of support to expect are all
important factors to look at. The best thing you can do is email the
host's support prior to signing up asking them a couple of questions
about the service and judge by your own standards how helpful and fast
the reply you get is.

Additional services and software is also something you may want to
inquire about with a pre-sales email to the host. Do they offer any
services or tools which will help you build or promote your website?
Will you be selling products from the site itself or just ebay? If
you'll want to sell on the site you'll need to know about their shopping
cart and SSL options available.

Hope this helps and good luck in your search,
Heather Moore