Could somebody please recommend a hosting company that would fall under these criteria:

1. Rackspace-based servers.
2. 24/7 technical support through online chat.
3. Technical support through forums.

Yes, I do know about the issue with spam and Rackspace.

Actually the issue with spam and rackspace is clearing up.


It's not something you can fix overnight, but they're working on it.

Just out of curiousity, why must it be rackspace based?

Because nobody else can offer the uptime that they offer, but let's not get into this issue.

I don't think there are any Rackspace hosts left on this forum. We may have been the last and now we are at NAC. No host can compete in the general market and have servers at Rackspace unfortunately. Shame because their service is completely amazing. No network downtime in a year.

actually it's no network downtime in almost two years.. 22 months..


We're going to be hosting with them. We don't compete in the general market, so it should be fine... I wouldn't mind picking up clients from here if they know what they're getting :P

Lirath, you mean if they are willing to pay :D

Well.. yeah.. that too...

:P

http://spirithosting.net/ is one. Run by a guy that manages one of our servers as well. Very helpful.

Jesus.. now that's some overselling.. 5gb of *rackspaces* bandwidth for 10 bucks? he's getting charged NO LESS than $2.5 a gig and then reselling it for $2 a gig...

how.. on... earth.... is that POSSIBLE... .. im so confused on how a host can sell for less than what he pays, offer support, afford other costs, and stay in business. :S

They can't, hence we are now at NAC.

Originally posted by Lirath
Jesus.. now that's some overselling.. 5gb of *rackspaces* bandwidth for 10 bucks? he's getting charged NO LESS than $2.5 a gig and then reselling it for $2 a gig...

how.. on... earth.... is that POSSIBLE... .. im so confused on how a host can sell for less than what he pays, offer support, afford other costs, and stay in business. :S You're right, you can't sell for that cheap. SpiritHosting.NET is currently re-structuring it's services, focusing more on server administration services than virtual web hosting. Even though virtual web hosting packages will still be available along with reseller packages, the bandwidth and storage space will be much lower for the same price. This will only affect new clients only.

Updates on new services will be available in a few months time.

Alan

Originally posted by NexDog
We may have been the last and now we are at NAC.
NexDog, with your amazing technical support and your excellent reputation you shouldn't have gone for cheaper servers at NAC. There are lots of people out there who are willing to pay extra for the level of uptime that Rackspace provides. I, for instance, would easily pay you two or three times as much as you charge right now if you were still at Rackspace.

Unfortunately not all are prepared to pay so much. We were very happy at Rackspace but needed to be more competitive on pricing if we were going to stay in the mainstream industry.

I'd rather pay 2/3 less and settle for 98-99% uptime with NAC rather than the premium of Rackspace.

Not sure if that made any sense or not but I think you guys get the point.

Sure.. if you run a personal site..

I have people who run true large e-commerce sites...

.1 % of downtime is 43 minutes in a month... so 98% uptime means 15 hours of downtime in a month.. that makes people lose a LOT MORE than they would have paid for rackspace based hosting.

Get the point?

Originally posted by Lirath
Sure.. if you run a personal site..

I have people who run true large e-commerce sites...

.1 % of downtime is 43 minutes in a month... so 98% uptime means 15 hours of downtime in a month.. that makes people lose a LOT MORE than they would have paid for rackspace based hosting.

Get the point?

I totally agree and I was thinking personal/hobby sites not eCommerce but you're 100% correct.

So, perhaps NexDog could market to two (or more) different segments. One segment would be customers like jeffcol who are willing to pay more. The other segment would be customers like rossMAN who are looking for what some might call (not derisively) "budget" hosting. NexDog might need to establish another "brand" for one of the segments. In fact, I see some other quality hosts apparently trying out that strategy by using a "new" brand to market what I might call "low-low-budget" accounts (along the lines of 1 GB/month of data transfer with no support except for forums).

I don't know why there's such a fanatical backing behind Rackspace. I am sure they are extremely good, not disputing that. But they certainly aren't the only one and there's others that's lots cheaper and are just as reliable and good.

If you can point me to someone who dedicates to your team two techs, and two account managers, whom you can get ahold of at almost any time day or night...

have 22 months NON STOP network uptime... then do it.. because I wish there was someone else, but there isn't.


I was planning on having two levels of hosting.. 1 for the people willing to spend for reliability... and one for those in the general market.

I came to a conclusion... people in the general market want everything, 24x7 tech support, for 10 bucks a month. Even with a rackshack server, I can't compete with that.

I'd rather have a rackspace server, give hosting to those who really *need* it, run everything for them and charge them for it.

It yields a better profit, less customers to hassle with, more return, and if you treat your customers right, they're faithful because they can trust you.

Oh by the way.. I apologize for hijacking this thread... but it was the wrong place to post the question anyways.

I think this forum was exactly the right place to post this inquiry (note that it is a request for a recommendation, not a request for an offer):

Originally posted by jeffcol
Could somebody please recommend a hosting company that would fall under these criteria:

1. Rackspace-based servers.
2. 24/7 technical support through online chat.
3. Technical support through forums.

Yes, I do know about the issue with spam and Rackspace.

I think your observation is correct, but I also think that the advertising claims directed at the general market tend to raise buyers' expectations and lead buyers to think that they are entitled to "everything" for ten bucks a month.

... people in the general market want everything, 24x7 tech support, for 10 bucks a month.

Yeah.. and if I target the general market and don't offer all the bells and whistles... well, then I'm screwed.


HOWEVER - I'm thinking of offering a service like 8-95.com or 3-95.com..... hosting for the individual who doesn't need hand holding... or only wants email support and will know that they might not get a quick responce in the middle of the night.

*thinks to himself*

In fact.... I will probably do that now that I think about it. It seems to work for them, why can't it work for me?

Jeffcol, the answer to your question, at least so far, appears to be "not very many." I guess your alternative is to post a detailed web hosting request, search for info on the responders, and then ask for comments here on what you think are the best of the responders and their offers.

Originally posted by cove
Jeffcol, the answer to your question, at least so far, appears to be "not very many."
Actually, so far the answer appears to be "none". It is said to see that all hosting companies have gone after budget-oriented customers. Yes, there are many people who would rather spend $5 a month and get 98% of uptime, but there are also many people like me who would be happy to pay a lot more for that extra 2% of uptime. Where are you hosting companies that can do it all for a little extra?

Perhaps you missed this one.

Originally posted by GeorgeC
http://spirithosting.net/ is one. Run by a guy that manages one of our servers as well. Very helpful. ;)

Perhaps there are other hosting companies that can do it all for a little extra but do not meet your "Rackspace" requirement. Or not. :rolleyes:

No, I didn't miss it, but I am looking for the whole package: Rackspace + true 24/7 tech support.

Well, spirithosting.net is on Rackspace and the website asserts: "[A]ll of our support tickets are answered by fully trained administrators who are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week." I guess Alan is from spirithosting.net and the gist of his post is that they will be raising rates. Although the post doesn't say so, I just went to the website and I see a mention of a knowledgebase but not forums (a different requirement of yours).

Added: And the website doesn't say 24/7 *by online chat,* another requirement.

I guess you're right; you're at square one.

Yeah, no forums and 12 hours can be quite a bit of wait in some sitiuations. I would rather pay extra, but have a way to get an answer from the tech support right away when I need it.

Just out of curiosity -- what do you think is a fair price to pay for your requirements (and what amount of diskspace and data transfer)?

For a standard package with about 200MB of space and 5GB of traffic I think $30-40 a month is a very fair price if the uptime is 99.999% and you can talk to the tech support 24/7.

I agree that $40 per month for that space and that traffic (at about 4-8 times the cost of "budget" hosting) should pay for total redundant backup and achieve close to 99.9% uptime (defined as website accessibility no matter what is happening at the data center, data center bandwidth providers, etc., but understanding that the "slammer" will be an uncontrollable factor to some extent). Do hosting companies have any comment? If $40 isn't enough, how much is enough?

I charge $50 a month for a site with those specs (except 250mb of space)....

EXCEPT.. i'm not offering hosting to the guys who can do everything themselves. I target people who have no clue what they're doing and need someone to run everything for them. Make it work.

Therefore, I pretty much babysit people. Now, if someone wanted to pay the same price and they could do everything themselves, I would have complete redundancy and 99.999% uptime even when my servers at rackspace are down.

However, the chances of getting a ton of people who know how to do it themselves, who need that kind of reliabilty, is very slim. This is the first request I've ever seen for that type of hosting.

Right now, I'm charging for the babysitting. If I targeted the people who could do it themselves, I'd be charging for redundancy and my 24x7 tech support.


BUT - It would only be financially possible if there was a large market for that, and I don't believe there is.

Sorry, I'm confused. For the $50 that you charge, you provide 250 MB space, 5 GB traffic, "babysitting" (not meant perjoratively), and no redundancy and average uptime? (I am not criticizing, just asking.) And are you saying that if you didn't have to "babysit," you would then redirect the costs of babysitting to complete redundancy and near 100% uptime?

Again, I'm just trying to clarify, not criticize.

What would it cost to have it all? Babysitting (premium support), complete redundancy, and near 100% uptime?

Added: I'm certainly not an expert in webhosting markets, but it seems to me that there are some small (say, 10 employees or less) professional (real estate, medical, law, etc.) offices that need premium support AND absolute reliability (especially email) AND might be willing (and even able) to pay for it.