The quality of your web is not just determined by the HTML code that you write. It's also determined by the platform from which the web is served to the Internet, and the capabilities and professionalism of your service provider. There's no use creating a great web if it's served so slowly that users on the other side of the world simply give up on it.
To raise awareness of some of these issues, I've created a list of questions you should ask before signing up with a WWW service provision company.
Is your service provider's webserver connected to the Internet backbone through a high speed link? If not, you'll find that people will find your web slow to access.
Is your service provider's webserver a powerful machine? If not, you'll find that people will find your web slow to access. The best servers can service at least one million hits per day.
Does your service provider provide a domain name service? A sensible domain name improves the image of a net citizen. If this is important to you, you'll need to register a domain name and have it supported by the domain name servers of your Internet service provider. So ensure that they are happy to provide this service.
Does your service provider have redundant domain name servers on independent subnets? Some service providers have just one or two domain name servers and locate them on the same subnet. The result is that whole classes of domain names can go "offline" if one or two individual machines go on the blink, or if the subnet goes down. Such problems can significantly decrease the "uptime" of your web.
Does your service provider provide a range of CGI scripts? CGI scripts enable you to perform image mapping, forms (sent to a specified email address), page counting, and other such CGI functions?. If your service provider doesn't care about these things, you should find another provider.
The webs in (http://www.ross.net/)
reside on a server provided by Internode Systems. Internode systems
provides a high quality service that satisfies all the above requirements.
Webmaster: ross@ross.net