What Is It?
OverSelling occurs when a hosting provider does exactly that - Over Sells their services. For example, The given host is provided with 1000GB of bandwidth per month, the host then sells 20 packages including 1000GB/month of data transfer. This in total accumulates to 20000GB of monthly bandwidth.
The common hope of course, is that the users do not use their full 2000GB per month, and if they do that they promptly pay for the service.
If the customer doesn't pay the overage cost, or the bandwidth bill is simply too high, the host then cannot pay the bill and becomes in debt, this then results in the server being suspended, your website being offline, and the host going out of buisness with your 1 year prepayment!
Do Not let this happen to you, cheaper is not always better, go with a respected and quality webhost!
How To Avoid it
Some hosting providers on the internet will tell you if they oversell their products. Generally you will be able to ask via email or live help if they oversell and they will give you an honest and direct answer.
A good indicator of a provider that oversells is generally a provider who offers packages which seem 'too good to be true'.
For example you will see people offering 5000GB of transfer and 50GB of diskspace for $4.99 per month! This accounts for very small amounts of profit for buisness, and sometimes why new buisness close up shop quickly.
Here are some tips on finding a reliable web host:
- Cheaper is not always better, experts say - you get what you pay for.
- Look for hosts who have multiple support options.
- Find out how long the hosting company has been in buisness.
- Chances are if the companies main website is slow, yours will be too.
Unlimited Bandwidth
Unlimited bandwidth is a classic example of OverSelling. Providers will jam pack as many clients as they can on one machine with unlimited bandwidth, now say they only have 1Mbps of bandwidth, sure you're getting unlimited bandwidth, but you have 200+ websites sharing the connection.
Go with a hosting provider who charges by the transfer rate. Generally you will recieve more than enough data transfer with your package. Don't let the numbers intimidate you. These are generally connections that are very fast, and not oversold!
Taken from Overselling.com
