Adult Web Hosts Defend Their Turf

• By The WHIR, December 21, 2005

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By Philbert Shih, theWHIR.com

This article appeared in the December 2005 issue of Web Host Industry Review magazine. Click here to subscribe for free.

December 21, 2005 -- (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) -- In the early days of the Web, a market for Web hosts specializing in adult content grew around the demand produced by adult Web sites for massive pipe and sophisticated e-commerce systems. It has often been said that adult content drove much of the early innovation on the Web - particularly in the delivery of video and other rich media - and frequently, early mainstream hosts were not up to the heavy demands of popular adult sites.

The Web has since matured, and all manner of mainstream Web sites have joined adult sites in their demands for bandwidth, security and e-commerce capabilities. By necessity, Web hosts in general are now equal to the demands of high-traffic, rich media Web sites. Technically speaking, the adult Web host is not quite the unique creature it once was.

But while mainstream hosts these days are capable of hosting adult Web sites - and many are willing to have adult material on their networks - adult hosts say they are not in fear of being pushed out of the niche they have held for years. Legal and ethical issues have discouraged some hosts from pursuing the market aggressively, and the close public scrutiny of the corporate sector in recent years is another deterrent. The fact is, adult, while certainly lucrative, is no longer the only profit-generating business on the Internet. And considering some of the other drawbacks, some mainstream hosts feel it may not even be worth the trouble.

Phil Blancett, president of XXXWebhosting (xxxwebhosting.com), believes mainstream hosts are staying away from adult sites because they have strict policies as to what they are willing to do in terms of customer support. He says ethics is also a prevalent concern, recalling how a major bandwidth provider hung up on him because of its unwillingness to deal with the adult industry.

"I think ethics play a bigger part than we realize," he says. Blancett also believes hosts are not as enthusiastic about pursuing adult clients because they prefer to stay away from customers that require higher amounts of overhead.

Brent Oxley, president and founder of Host Gator (hostgator.com), on the other hand, says mainstream hosts are becoming more receptive to adult sites because dropping disk space and bandwidth costs has made them more capable of responding to their needs. And while some businesses object to adult material on ethical grounds, he says, many feel censoring content could raise an equally contentious ethical argument.

"If we did decide to ban adult content we would have no way to police it without invading the privacy of our client's files and images," says Oxley. "[And] if we decided to ban it for ethical reasons there's the ethical [question] of deciding where to draw the line. Should profanity be banned? Political sites? Religious sites?"

Blancett concedes that adult site operators could go with willing mainstream hosts, but he points out that many are still likely to prefer dealing with a host they can be sure is aware of the intricacies of their businesses.

"I think customers are more comfortable," he says, "discussing the aspects of their business and needs with somebody who is officially okay with adult content."

There are other advantages. Non-adult hosts won't be able to provide content, for instance, while adult hosts often partner with content providers to include picture or video materials with their hosting packages. Adult Web hosts typically include specialized technical tools such as bandwidth protection scripts like Proxypass and Pennywize. XXXWebhosting does it at a discount, says Blancett.

But security, he says, is the area that really separates adult hosts from mainstream providers. Adult sites tend to attract more security threats through password hacking. They also deal with age verification issues and credit card fraud on a regular basis. And the accumulated experience gives hosts a perspective that is very specific - and very useful - to adult Web sites.

Tony Morgan, president of longtime adult hosting stalwart NationalNet (nationalnet.com), says he has to constantly fight password sharing and credit card fraud, and protect content from being lifted from customer sites. Brute force attacks are another problem. They can run for days or weeks, barraging servers with different combinations of user names and passwords trying to find a hole.

"This is security that is very industry-specific," says Morgan. Hosts like NationalNet can draw on experience when faced with these issues and many of the solutions and technologies to deal with them they've created themselves.

Experience also plays a role in dealing with situations like the massive traffic surge brought on by a mention on Howard Stern, for example. Mainstream hosts, especially the larger ones, can handle the bandwidth aspect, says Morgan. But it is the knowledge of dealing with these issues on a regular basis that qualifies the adult host.

Adult hosts like NationalNet are staffed with technicians trained to handle the many specialized functions - such as high-volume streaming or video - that reside in adult hosting infrastructures. They are, as he describes, a "separate breed of administrator than those who are running your standard Linux boxes."

And adult site operators, many of whom are not technically savvy, require a high level of maintenance. "We often do as much consulting as we do technical work," says Blancett. "And our staff is quite familiar with adult business issues."

Ultimately, it is the combination of willingness to work with adult material and the accumulated experience in dealing with technical issues unique to the adult Web hosting business that leads adult hosting customers to prefer the adult host - and to ensure the hosts themselves  are secure in their place within that niche.

And, while adult Web hosts may not fear the intrusion of mainstream providers into their territory, many of them find themselves able to parlay their adult world experiences into success on the other side of the fence. Almost everything it takes to be a successful adult host can be applied to mainstream hosting.

Morgan believes adult hosts are becoming more accepted outside their traditional market and his company is proof. NationalNet started off in the mid-90s with an almost exclusively adult client. Now the company does between 30 and 35 percent of its business in non-adult hosting.

"I've sat in mainstream conferences," says Morgan, "and I'm the person that says 'yes, I came from the adult world ... and you should want to host something with me because I'm from the adult world' and I explain to them why."

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