Its easy to identify web hosting resellers – even with your own web host company too! Here is how…  There are websites of all kinds and sizes. Some have all sorts of applications integrated into their operations – such as e-commerce, pop ups and media, and then there are those that are quite small and might simply be informational without a lot of need for the proverbial “bells and whistles”. Now the thing about all of these websites is that they are all hosted on server equipment somewhere in the world.

Server equipment is costly to acquire and highly complicated to administrate and these are the reasons most people opt to put their website on a web hosting provider’s server where they need only make changes or updates to their pages without all of the hassles of equipment maintenance and concerns.

In the world of web hosting however there are a few ways in which a space is sold. The first is a direct line from the owner of the server equipment, who makes the arrangements with each of the website owners, and also maintains the servers properly. This is the original method for finding a web host provider. There are also “resellers” and these companies or individuals act in a similar fashion to traditional retail stores. This means they purchase large amounts of merchandise (space on the server) and then they turn around and sell it to their own customers (website owners).

So, how do you know if your web hosting provider is a reseller, and the real question might be, does it matter? For some situations it definitely will matter if you have used a reseller. Generally this is when a website is hosted on a “dedicated” server. This is because the website owner has purchased the use of an entire server, which also means the site is expected to receive high traffic and equally high usage. The reason that using a direct purchase through the actual host is so important is due strictly to the need for instant feedback about problems or issues that arise with the website.

The remaining companies or individuals can generally feel confident choosing either a web host reseller or actual web host for their needs because most web hosting resellers make customer service guarantees and are usually well-equipped with the kind of knowledge and staff to address most issues.

If you want to know if a company is a reseller before signing a contract however, you can easily find out in one of the following ways:

• Ask directly – if such a question is avoided you will know it is a reseller.
• Look them up in the WHOIS directory.
• Do a search of all the hosting resources and seek out reviews.
• Check with a major domain registrar to see if the host’s domain name matches the name server.

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/web-hosting-articles/how-to-tell-if-your-web-host-is-a-reseller-791181.html