It doesn’t take a genius at this moment to realize our Internet has slowed to a crawl – especially Streamyx users. Some of your favourite websites or blogs even, take more than 3-5 minutes to load on a single connection. I can’t even bear to mention the number of times I’ve refreshed and reset my connection, just to get a better IP address. For those who don’t know, selected IP connections do give a faster browsing speed. Don’t ask me why. *points to TMNet*
You may have noticed selected local websites still loading at the normal speeds. Well, it’s because the local connections aren’t fully affected by the international cables – which are down now. Yes, apparently there’s an underwater cable disruption on TMNet’s website which they always assume for its customers to refer instead of informing us via email. Well, the next common question some clients ask me is; what’s the difference between hosting in Malaysia and outside of it?
I’m going to admit first I’m not a website hosting expert. However, here are some of the answers I’ve found through my observations all these years.
Malaysia Website Hosting Advantages(+) and Disadvatages(-)
- (+) Websites load faster.
- (+) Easier optimized for Google.com.my.
- (+) Business govern by Malaysia law.
- (-) Packages are only average compared to international ones.
- (-) International users have problems accessing if the international connection is down.
- (-) Little more difficult optimizing for Google.com
International Website Hosting Advantages(+) and Disadvatages(-)
- (+) Websites load a little slower – add 30 seconds more or less.
- (+) Packages are more affordable and attractive.
- (+) Easier optimized for Google.com.
- (-) Business not govern by Malaysia law.
- (-) Local users have problems accessing if the local connection is down – rarely happens.
- (-) Little more difficult optimizing for Google.com.my
I’ve also found website hosting in Singapore may be more reliable than Malaysia. Plus, if Malaysia or the international link from Malaysia goes down I trust my Singapore provider to have it still running at its best performance.
Note hoewever, I didn’t include the customer service because this is justified by the company culture itself. But the general phrase I always like to use is; you pay peanuts for monkeys. Though sometimes even when you pay gold, there has been instances of a monkey around.
Generally, the list are the observed effects I’ve noticed when using local and international website hosting. Websites Made Simple is hosted by a local company with a US-based server so it’s quite sluggish now. However, I’m looking forward to launch a new blog with a Malaysia-based website hosting company this year. Simply because I need it to load faster and I’m not keen (yet) for it to reach more of an international audience. 🙂
Are you hosted in Malaysia, Singapore, US or others? How is it right now?
Is it possible to have a website hosted at two different places, for example on a server in Malaysia and on a server in the US.
It will auto serve from the server in Malaysia when users from Malaysia access to the website, but will serve from the other server when users from other countries access to the website?
@danny I concur. I recently moved http://mymacbuzz.com to media temple’s servers (based in California, US). I’m very happy with the server specs and customer service and most importantly uptime (my old Malaysian host was fast, but the site down half the time!)
However the recent disconnected international cables also caught me again. if myMacBUZZ is supposed to serve Malaysians primarily it should be hosted locally for better performance. But for local hosts with plans beyond shared hosting it was a pretty crap deal too.
Now i’m contemplating Amazon’s Cloudfront content delivery network (for future la). for those who don’t know, Cloudfront is a cheap way to mirror your website static files across the world so that you are delievered files from closer servers like what Neo is thinking of.
I host with Hastyhost.com, just a small personal company. So far no problem with uptime and I get very personalised service.
@Neo
That sounds like a CDN; Content Delivery Network. Something people like Facebook and Wikipedia are using. And, it’s costly at the moment. 😛
@blogjunkie
Ooo, so they’ve resolved their grid hosting problems? I remember they’ve been having loads of database complaints. And, that’s crucial to blog owners. But yeah, you too should know about the markets between US and Malaysia.
@Leona:
Small personal company as in your own company? Well, I’ve heard many say it’s the small which provide the greater service – at the beginning. Then when they’re big, problems start to arise though it depends how they handle it.
…so far, I have no problem with my hosting provider from local (Malaysia) but my blog is hosted in US. Anybody have any experience hosting any website in UK?
I’ve heard some good things about the UK ones but everywhere has it’s good and bad. Why you asking about UK, Wing Loon?
SEO is one of the factor for affiliate marketers to drive organic free traffic to their websites.
Hosting in international hosting provider is vital for website/blog owner to optimize their position in search engine especially in Google.
If you’re affiliate marketers which most of the potential customers come from international, is advisable to host in international hosting provider. Other than that they also provide 24/7 online customer service and 99.9% Uptime Guarantee.
To Your Success
Bryan Hee
Well, as mentioned in the article optimizing has its strengths locally and internationally. And right now, most hosting providers are using the 24/7 customers service and 99.9% uptime guarantee marketing message. Though many have learnt the hard way of their true service.
Plus, there are those who say 24/7 instead the only support you’ll get is an autoresponder. 😛
I guess, hosting in Malaysia is easy for me because i’m Malaysian. Easy for me to contact them if something happen. But i was wrong, I had this one time when my server down for almost 5 hours. I called the web hosting company, no one answered. I’m fed up with them but, i already paid up for a year service. So i have to bear with it. I even mention this in my blog http://jobberies.com/gosee-design/where-to-host-your-website/
but never reveal the company name. I’m scared LOL, i’m still using their service.
LOL! Indeed, everyone still has to learn the hard way lightdes. Which is why testimonials and personal research is very important. Rather than recommendation sometimes. 🙂