And for every unqualified or unreliable Web hosting company, there are dozens - at least - of dissatisfied customers, many of them inclined to believe that Web hosts are thieves, guilty of false advertising, poor performance and unreliable support.

Many of those customers are guilty, too, of failing to research before making their purchases, or being sucked in by low prices. The "buyer beware" principle applies in Web hosting as much as in any other business.

But as buyers do become more aware, even well-meaning Web hosts may discover that they set off alarms for some of those researching customers, coming close to making claims that are becoming more commonly recognized as literally too good to be true.

According to Gartner (gartner.com) research director Lydia Leong, customers should look to see offers in writing. "A verbal promise is not a promise at all, so ALWAYS get it in writing," she says. "The sales person could be a bad apple, so get it in the contract."

Leong says customers should look for - and Web hosts should avoid unnecessarily making - several claims in particular:

We are in great financial shape - "Prove it." Customers want to know their hosting provider is going to be around for the long haul, just like their own businesses. This could be the most common lie customers hear, says Leong.

We have the best support in the industry - If your SLAs promise 24/7 support, what do they say about your average response time by e-mail or phone and average on-hold time?

We don't have it yet, but we are working on it - Customers are buying your services today. Not tomorrow. Make sure they know what they're getting, or you're setting them up for disappointment.

We really care about your business - This is a claim better demonstrated than told to a customer. Show them you care by outlining the service, support and amount of personal attention they will receive in the SLA.

We have unlimited capacity - A common claim, and almost always untrue, especially among small hosts with just a few servers. Overselling has become a common complaint among hosting customers. Making an irresponsible claim is setting yourself up for trouble, possibly of the legal variety. 

We have been in business for "X" years - How long have you been in Web hosting? A Web design shop that now does hosting doesn't count as a seasoned hosting provider.

In addition to the potential for outright dishonesty, there is a great deal of danger for confusion between Web hosts and their customers regarding responsibilities and guarantees given to customers.

If a hosting provider offers business continuity services, can it guarantee the same level of performance if it has to move the workload to another site? Sometimes it is the responsibility of the end-user customer and not the hosting provider.

"It's certainly important to make clear who is responsible for what," says Stacey Quandt, research director of security solutions and services for AberdeenGroup. "Many hosting centers provide power, networking, AC, and not much else. To do business continuity you need to know a lot more about the application, which is often beyond what a hosting center would provide. Normally that gets handled by the IT staff or you outsource everything."

To avoid trouble, answer the questions before they are asked. Are the objectives of the SLA measurable? How often are they measured, and are they measurable by a third party? What are the consequences if objectives are unmet? Provide assurances of security integrity, including physical access, redundant networks, and power connectivity. Explain how often these items are checked.

Wise customers do their homework, including giving firewalls and backup the attention they merit to avoid a frantic search for a new vendor after being educated the hard way.

John Keagy, president of ServePath (servepath.com), a San Francisco-based managed hosting specialist, says he gets many new customers who have either lost data or have been driven nearly mad due to inoperable systems that have temporarily put them out of business.

"They feel violated and blame the previous vendor, but they were too busy with their core business to realize the threat and didn't take time to plan it right. When they come to us, it's like a come-to-Jesus meeting," he says. "They have an urgent need to be back in business and are ready to plan and pay appropriately for customized service that focuses on their unique needs. It is money well spent."

If anybody thinks end-users are to blame for the bad things that happen to them, consider the task of knowing who is telling the truth when scores of hosts all are making the same claims about the services they offer. It's enough to befuddle anyone, says Darren Tabor, Chief Executive Officer of DevStart. His Chicago-area company operates Host Review (hostreview.com), an online hosting directory that rates providers.

His chief criticism of providers is offering 20 gigabytes of hard drive space as an entry-level package. The enticement causes many buyers to overlook service package details.

"Now that's not a lie, but everybody knows you aren't going to use that much space and yet those numbers just keep going up and up," he says. "It's hard for me to place the blame entirely on the buyer."

While the dishonesty of some fly-by-night hosting providers may have created a situation in which potential hosting customers are particularly wary of the promises Web hosting providers make, it has also created a situation from which honest Web hosts stand to benefit.

All customers will appreciate a host telling them honestly what they can expect to receive, and backing up those claims with proof and guarantees. Beyond appreciating it, these days many Web hosting customers will require it.