I've done the searching and I've been reading and I've talked to some. Does anyone have anything to add about any of these hosts?
http://www.crediblehost.com
http://www.fluidhosting.com
http://www.hampshirehosting.com
http://www.darktides.net

I have seen how some of these threads can turn in a flame session so I hope I'm not starting anything with this. I have chosen these hosts for various reasons so I'm not looking for suggestions on others, just opinions on these.

Out of those I would say darktides.net because I know the owner and hes a nice guy.

Same here, I used to be a darktides client before I went into hosting myself. Bryans cool, and very helpful with anything you need.

Actually come to think of it I'm still a darktides client lol, have a small account with him, I use it for a backup site and email in case my own servers go down, although I haven't used it yet.

Out of those I've only had experience of FluidHosting and would highly recommend them.

Solid reputation, extremely reliable network and great to deal with.

I'll go with CredibleHost or Darktides.

Originally posted by UltimeWWW
I'll go with CredibleHost or Darktides.

He's looking for Honest Reviews, have you actually used CredibleHost or Darktides :D

Just a thought, when you guys recommend a host, it might be a good idea to give more than just a few sentences, perhaps a example of something that the host did to impress you or an experiance that you have had that was dealt with either to your satisfaction or not. Just a thought. These one liners saying "chose this guy" don't help all that much.

Originally posted by Lippy
These one liners saying "chose this guy" don't help all that much.
I see it in most cases (where they apply) for hosting providers to sling their sig ads and bump post counts.

I recommend fluidhosting... this is a review I provided to this board last month.... and I'm still happy with them.

OLD REVIEW:

Fluidhosting.com review windows hosting

After moving from a previous windows host due to problems I found Fluidhosting on this forum. I’ve been with them for 2 months and thought I would give a 2 month review and setup review for people looking for windows hosting.

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Best: Support. Support is second to none. I’ve been in this business for 7 years and I’ve never seen such support that this company provide. It is unreal. As I type this Jim and Dave are logged on in Microsoft Instant Messenger. When I’ve had a question or submitted a trouble ticket (rarely) they are normally responded to within 1 hour. Normally, Jim will answer via Instant Messenger. I don’t know if this is standard practice but it works for me.

Neutral: Bandwidth is a little low considering the price you pay. I’ve not went over but I’m worried this month since I had to load a 20 mb download on my site late last month (Software that I hold copyright) . I’m sure my bandwidth will increase. Granted, I’ve not contacted FH to see if I can work around this…. Also, it seems that .asp pages seem to be complicated to set up with this system. There is a fix, but I did not bother with it. Jim was going to help me with this feature but I decided to not use the .asp pages. Plus I was trying to do something specific… I believe it was send a form via .asp pages to a database. I don’t know, you might want to ask about this feature. If FH reads this I guess they can comment on the .asp pages.


Bad: Nothing so far.
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Overall:
Setup: Easy. I pay using paypal each month. I know you can pay also with credit card or check. Setup was fast.

Uptime: Uptime is the best I’ve seen on a Windows host. They have been down maybe 15 minutes in the past 2 months that I’ve seen. Since I make a living off my sites, I know when they are down. As everyone knows, *nix host tend to have better uptime. But as I said above (in neutral comment) you pay a premium for bandwidth, so having great uptime is a fair trade. Would anyone want high bandwidth but have a host go down all the time because they went with cheap bandwidth?

Speed: loading sites is very fast. Uploading from my computer is really fast as well. I've not had any connection problems thus far. I've built several sites using Frontpage on fluidhosting.

E-mail: I don’t use the e-mail. I use everyone.net. I learned from my last host not to place e-mail with your hosting company.

Other features: You can have multiple sites with free stats. I like this a lot. The stats are not pretty, but they give you all the information you need.

Bulletin board: Nice bulletin board makes it very easy to load a BB.

The h-spere control panel is the best I’ve seen so far. It is very good at handling multiple websites. You can handle your frontpage, e-mail, etc. via the control panel. There is very little that you have to contact support for…. Turning on and off any feature (i.e. Shared SSL Support, FrontPage Extensions, ASP, CGI dir) is as easy as hitting a button. Setting up “A” records is just as easy (some host charge you to change A records).


Documentation: for new people the documentation on how to work the control panel is excellent. Most of my previous host had nothing that amounts to what they have listed.

Setting up and sending a mailing list is easy. You can also setup redirects easy…

I could go on, but you should get the picture. The service is very nice. It is a flexible hosting provider that I’m glad I found on this forum.

I’ll provide a 1 year update next year to let everyone know if I made it our not.

Originally posted by Hoobastank68
He's looking for Honest Reviews, have you actually used CredibleHost or Darktides :D

Funny, that's never stopped you from recommending (or trashing) a host now has it? Practice what you preach...but then again, it's still not about the count is it? If you can't help, don't post. It's as simple as that.

If you had read his post, he (or she) stated that they have done the searching and is looking for opinions. All the companies on his list are reputable and it appears, at least to me, he/she is looking to narrow it down. I think they would do well with any host on that list, but having some specifics about what kind of hosting they require would be helpful.

Originally posted by raidersrule
I have seen how some of these threads can turn in a flame session so I hope I'm not starting anything with this...
No comment.

Well in my case I just didn't want to make a huge long post. So for what it's worth here's the short list of what Bryan at darktides did for me while I was there.

Taught me all about SSH

When my graphics guy wouldn't use an ftp client Bryan custom wrote a php upload script for him to use

Fixed all sorts of stuff I broke :P

quite literally spent at least 20 hours a week answering my endless questions about a billion different things.

fixed any of my scripts that I couldn't get to work (I'd been out of the programming stuff for years and was having trouble picking it all up again).

Taught me all about cPanel and WHM as well as a few tricks/tweaks etc.

Even though I only have a tiny account with him now he still answers any questions I have (not that I have many nowadays)

Gave me advice on running my own hosting biz even though I'm technically a competitor now.

That's the short list anways. That enough?

And just to show I'm not looking for free publicity I'm removing my sig from this post.

WTG Donna! :D

It's much easier to give an "honest review" when you've actually used the service.

WOW, now that's some host that goes an extra mile for his clients. Well done Bryan!

Of all the hosts you mentioned, the only one I've used is Fluidhosting, and I can recommend them (I have their Deluxe Windows hosting plan). My review would be similar to the one posted by Hekwu except to say I've been with them for a couple months longer.

The only difficulty I can comment on is that it took a little long to get the account set up because I never received any confirmation email after signup, but when I sent them an email, they responded within an hour with the information I needed.

Other than that, the only support problem/question I had was in setting up permissions, and they answered that within an hour as well. Since then, I have had no problems at all, hence my recommendation.

I've never used any of the other hosts you mentioned, so their service may be as good as or better than Fluidhost, but I can only comment on my experience with Fluidhost.

Some other similar Windows hosts I've used would include Crystaltech and Gearhost. I was only with Crystaltech a short time as their plan was a little pricey and exceeded my needs, but they were thoroughly professional and prompt in setting up and closing out my account. I've had several accounts at Gearhost for well over a year, during which time they experienced a couple instances of lengthy downtime, but for the past few months I've not had any problems with them, so I can recommend them as well with only the slightest of reservations.

I will note that all 3 of the hosts I mentioned have always responded to my questions and inquiries in a professional manner and usually within an acceptable timeframe.

I hope that helps.

I can add my experience with FluidHosting as well. This was awhile back but I don't think their service has changed much. My main reason for signing up was to test out HSphere. My account was set up within hours (which to me is not a necessity, but to some it is). All support requests I had, which if I remember correctly was only two, were answered within a few hours and were quite knowledgeable and helpful. I didn't experience any noticeable downtime while I was there. I would recommend them based on my experience. Like I said before, it really depends on what type of hosting you are looking for. Although I haven't used the others, I have communicated with both Hampshire(Blue27) & Darktides and both are great guys.

Good luck in your search.

"WOW, now that's some host that goes an extra mile for his clients. Well done Bryan!"

With us you pay for support and yes we will go the extra mile for all of our customers. They are our top priority and always will be.

Thanks.