Okay, well I am moving from being a reseller to renting some managed servers. I have used the search feature and read a lot of the past posts that memebers have made. I have narrowed my choice down to 3 providers, site5.com, pwebtech.com and burst.net and need your help to make up my mind.

I like site5.com but I don't like the fact that they don't offer phone support. I like pwebtech.com but can't decide between plesk and cpanel. I like burst.net but I am a little leary with all the negative posts there has been on them here. I am trying to take those with a grain of salt though as I have also seen a lot of positive posts. All three are very similar in what they offer, I guess the main thing I have to figure out is which control panel is better. I have read both positive and negative things about Plesk and Cpanel.

So, who would you choose and which of those control panels do you like better?

I'd say you can do more (and offer more) with the current version of cpanel than you can with the current version of Plesk. While Plesk is one of the better server admin tools IMO, it lacks a certain something, is less slightly less user-friendly than some others, and overall, can't offer certain things that you might want.

<<EDIT: Just noticed how vague my post was, heh>>

What features are important to you in a CP? Take a look at both CPs and see which one better fits what you need and want. All three companys are good IMO.

Pwebtech is a great company, burst.net has been exp. growing pains lately and i dont know much about site5.

As for the plesk and cpanel issue, cpanel def. has many more features but the support and quality of plesk if unrivaled so its a toss up.

I myself would go with pwebtech and plesk, but im biased as we use plesk... :)

For a typical server config:
800mhz
256 ram
60GB hard drive
w/50GB transfer

At Rackspace you'll pay 525 per month plus 390 setup, add Cpanel to that and you'll be paying 625 per month.

At BurstNET you'll only pay 249 per month, No setup and it includes the Cpanel at no charge.

I don't know with you but if you ask me, I always go to the extremes like if I want 24/7 dedicated telephone/tech. support and I want somebody to be there waiting for me to call them ,sort of like having your own Noc assistant/tech supp. guy. then go with Rackspace or other overpriced data centers.

On the other hand, if you want to save money and still get some decent tech. support then go with BurstNET, you'll be saving a LOT of money that you can use to buy other stuff... or put the money you saved in some savings account.

I'm also using Plesk, a few of our servers c.p are powered by Plesk but i don't recommend them, for some reason you need to fiddle with your scripts to make it to work on these boxes :smash:

I don't have any experiences w/ pwebtech and site5 but i've heard, they are good too.

Final thoughts: for the Best bang for your buck, go with Burst.net...

I Pesronally Recommend BurstNET. My Company has a lot of servers with & have had nothing other than good experiences. All Phone Calls & Emails Answered In Timely Manner.

If you can afford to wait 24hrs for support tickets to be answered . I just cancelled my account with them for the second time in a week due to unbelievably slow ticket response times . They were terribly slow and did not communicate issues with getting my order for a ded server online so I cancelled the order . They did get it online before the order cancellation went through , so I agreed to stay on with them . Then yesterday I put in a support ticket at 8:26 am EST and it was answered at 12:30 am this morning . I'm running a business , and cannot afford to wait more than a few hours during normal business hours .
Once again I put in a cancellation order and expect them to honor thier 30 day guarantee .

If you don't need much in the way of support , Burst is a great deal but if you are running a business and counting on Burst to help you support that business .......you are taking a risk .

Do a board search on Burst , you will see I am not alone with this . Those that are praising Burst either have extremely low expectaions or are very lucky ? (maybe even related ? )

yes.. Strider, i know you didn't like the idea of site5 not having phone support,

<<MOD EDIT:>>
Please only post information if you have direct experiences with the host.
<</MOD EDIT>>

>> burst.net has support alright, bad support that is >>

Once again, this individual "node9", has no first hand experience of the level of service that BurstNET provides. This individual has never been a BurstNET client, however insists on posting negative comments about our company every chance that he gets.

NOTE: Moderators, we ask that you get this individual under control somehow, as such posts are in poor taste, and should not be allowed. This individual has some agenda to defame our company.

------------------

MrGoodHost: I am sorry things did not work hour for you. We do feel however that 27 hours is still a "reasonable" response time for a higher end support ticket. Some of your major hosting providers advertise only 24-48 hours response times even. At BurstNET we do strive for as fast of response times as possible, and are hiring additional staff as fast as possible to keep up with such. Most tickets do get answered within 8 hours or less. Tickets during the afternoons usually get answered within the hour.

The specific ticket in question actually had to do with a problem with your registrar. Although we tried to figure out the problem, it was an error that we had never heard of before. At the point that we had given up, we emailed you to ask for further information.

The error in question was:

<< I tried to change the DNS entries at Network Solutions for americashost.net and it rejects it saying : the Host name invalid. Host must be associated with the domains you own. >>

Well, the registration of the nameservers was completed properly, and they do resolve.....and that is just about everythng required on the server end.


root@secure [~]# whois NS1.MIDWESTDNS.COM

Whois Server Version 1.3

Domain names in the .com, .net, and .org domains can now be registered
with many different competing registrars. Go to http://www.internic.net
for detailed information.

Server Name: NS1.MIDWESTDNS.COM
IP Address: 66.96.221.138
Registrar: TUCOWS, INC.
Whois Server: whois.opensrs.net
Referral URL: http://www.opensrs.org


root@secure [~]# whois NS2.MIDWESTDNS.COM

Whois Server Version 1.3

Domain names in the .com, .net, and .org domains can now be registered
with many different competing registrars. Go to http://www.internic.net
for detailed information.

Server Name: NS2.MIDWESTDNS.COM
IP Address: 66.96.221.139
Registrar: TUCOWS, INC.
Whois Server: whois.opensrs.net
Referral URL: http://www.opensrs.org


root@midwest [~]# ping ns1.midwestdns.com
PING ns1.midwestdns.com (66.96.221.138) from 66.96.221.138 : 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 6696221138.hostnoc.net (66.96.221.138): icmp_seq=0 ttl=255 time=52 usec
64 bytes from 6696221138.hostnoc.net (66.96.221.138): icmp_seq=1 ttl=255 time=62 usec
--- ns1.midwestdns.com ping statistics ---
2 packets transmitted, 2 packets received, 0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/mdev = 0.052/0.057/0.062/0.005 ms


root@midwest [~]# ping ns2.midwestdns.com
PING ns2.midwestdns.com (66.96.221.139) from 66.96.221.139 : 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 6696221139.hostnoc.net (66.96.221.139): icmp_seq=0 ttl=255 time=42 usec
--- ns2.midwestdns.com ping statistics ---
1 packets transmitted, 1 packets received, 0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/mdev = 0.042/0.042/0.042/0.000 ms


The only possibility I can think of is that NetSol may have changed things a bit...and they query the database of the main domain of the nameservers...in this case "midwestdns.com" .. in which case ns2.midwestdns.com you do not have set up to resolve properly.

This was on another server, not from BurstNET...which you needed to do this on:

root@midwest [~]# whois midwestdns.com
[whois.crsnic.net]

Whois Server Version 1.3

Domain names in the .com, .net, and .org domains can now be registered
with many different competing registrars. Go to http://www.internic.net
for detailed information.

Domain Name: MIDWESTDNS.COM
Registrar: TUCOWS, INC.
Whois Server: whois.opensrs.net
Referral URL: http://www.opensrs.org
Name Server: NS2.000DOMAINS.COM
Name Server: NS1.000DOMAINS.COM
Updated Date: 12-jun-2001



That may or may not be the reason though...as I stated earlier, we have never seen this error before, and everything was set up properly on your server end....


Sean R.
BurstNET

Pwebtech has cpanel as well as plesk which they can offer you, i think its $60 or $100 a month for it.

Originally posted by BurstNET
>> burst.net has support alright, bad support that is >>

Once again, this individual "node9", has no first hand experience of the level of service that BurstNET provides. This individual has never been a BurstNET client, however insists on posting negative comments about our company every chance that he gets.

NOTE: Moderators, we ask that you get this individual under control somehow, as such posts are in poor taste, and should not be allowed. This individual has some agenda to defame our company.

I have to agree with Sean on this one. Node9, I'll ask you to leave the positive/negative comments for those who have actually used the service. Seems to be plenty in this catagory who are willing to post their experiences. Some people offer help in the way of suggesting to 'search the forum' for comments.

<< I tried to change the DNS entries at Network Solutions for americashost.net and it rejects it saying : the Host name invalid. Host must be associated with the domains you own. >>


well.. correct me if i'm wrong but i think your site americashost.net is originally registered at worldnic?
a networksolutions reseller. You must register/do DNS changes at worldnic.

<<Admin edit : cross-posted>>

Go with pwebtech.com they have good prices, good service/support and good poeple working there.