I know that anytime that i see my websites down because of temporary problems at the web host i dont like the feeling and dislike the thought of a visitor, especially a brand new visitor to my website being disappointed and possibly forgetting all about my url and never to return again because what they were hoping to find could not be reached at that time.

Fortunately many web hosts work very hard to try and keep downtime for their customers to an absolute minimum but even some of the best hosts out there have a troublesome day where they are dealing with server problems or going through a major upgrade accross their servers.

I personally see downtime of a couple if minutes no big deal at all, 10 mins dowtime is not anything to start panicking about, and up to 30 mins downtime, as long as its not a daily and weekly occurrence is still probably seen by many as one of those things, especially on a shared server.

But if downtime experienced becomes hours then this really is too long for a website to be down when it is not through overuse of the server on your part.

I should point out that im referring to downtime caused by problems at the host and not downtime through your own doing or a traffic spike.

If a server is down for a few hours and it hasn't happend to you before at the host that you use or its very rare, and the hosting company keep the affected customers well informed then i feel this is acceptable, its very important for the affected customers to know what has happened if it is relevant for the host to give an explanation and for the customers to have a rough idea of when they should be able to expect normal operation again of their hosted websites.

If you do find your web host has more downtime than you feel acceptable, regardless of the plan you are paying for being cheap or not you should really consider moving to a different web host that doesn't have so much downtime and as a result does not potentially affect the success and possibly even sales generated through your website.

Filed under: General Web Hosting Info by admin Published November 11, 2008