Web hosts are in business to make money. The more clients and sites they can pack onto a single web server the more economical it becomes for the host. Most hosts that offer extremely low cost hosting do so because they cram hundreds of clients onto a single machine. If one or several of those sites suddenly get hit with lots of traffic or if they have not sufficiently optimized the CMS software running on them this puts a load on the server that winds up slowing your site down in the process. But this is not the only reason that oversold web hosts are often to blame for slow server speeds. The other has to do with spam.
Low cost hosting can be used by lawful business owners as well as by spammers or other unwanted guests. On a server with 500 sites being hosted it is not uncommon for many of them to be infected with malware or be specifically set up to send out unwanted email. When one of the major Internet security companies sees this they often take steps to blacklist that server. Thus, every other account on that server is also blacklisted due to the fact they are all served from the same IP address. In other words email that you send out may be sent to the spam folder simply because your neighbor is a spammer. To check and see if your server is on any blacklists type your site address into one of the blacklist check sites like BlackList Master or MXToolbox. For most of these services you will need to know your server's IP address. If you don't know it try using using this service to look it up.
If you discover that your site is blacklisted due to the actions of someone else you really have one option available, to move to a reliable, clean hosting provider. Privately owned web hosts like Straight Arrow Hosting will often cost a bit more per month but they often provide more speed and better customer service in return. Feel free to check our servers against the blacklists shown above. You’ll see that Straight Arrow’s servers are not overpopulated like the big national companies and you’ll find that the server itself is probably far faster than your current host.
For more information about hosting your site with Straight Arrow check out our main hosting site or feel free to send us an email. You’ll be answered by a real live human being, not given a stale canned response. We look forward to meeting you and can’t wait to show you how our services can help you meet your personal, commercial, or non-profit needs.