I am trying to choose a host company.

Does anybody know anything about :

1) P4Host

2) Ipowerweb

3) Tripod (paid option)

4) netfirms

Thank you!

Ipowerweb packs thousands of websites on per server and some of their servers have known to hit loads of over 100.

Can I ask how you narrowed it down to these 4 particular hosts?

Blue27,

You sense something that I don't?

No. Just curious.

Blue,

p4host...rated #2 on findmyhost.com also offers -apparently- to host 4 domains with good bandwidth. and alexa.con says "very fast connection".

ipowerweb... appears everywhere...

netfirms... where I used to host for free some domains.

tripod... years and years around..

tripod... years and years around..

OK. Of all the ones you listed, this may be the best reason for choosing a host.
I'm not saying that Tripod is your best bet, just be sure to do your home work.
Beware of hosting directorys. Reviews are not always what they seem to be and most of the prominent hosts are there because they paid to be.
Maybe expand your options some and get some more opinions. Choosing a host should not be rushed in to.

i know about the host directories.. but since findmyhosting.com has a reliability check from alertra I thought it would be more serious.. do you know anything about that test?

What company do you suggest?

Canuk,

You can give any of them a try but just make sure you don't get locked into long term contracts.

do you know anything about that test?

Have a look around the forum. It's been shown that findmyhosting.com is anything but a reliable indicator.
Post what what you are willing to pay and what bandwidth and disk space you require and people will be able to make recommendations based on that.

Originally posted by canuk
p4host...rated #2 on findmyhost.com also offers -apparently- to host 4 domains with good bandwidth. and alexa.con says "very fast connection".

There has been a discussion (http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?threadid=184095&highlight=p4host+findmyhosting+review) about their reviews at FMH, along with some very good points of their business methods.

I am not saying don't go with p4host, as they haven't been proved to provide bad service.
Just read up on them and decide for yourself.

Besides TriPod, I never heard of other two.
I used Tripod free services many moons ago, and then couldn't fathom paying for that kind of service. Hopefully they improved since then and someone using the service now can give more in depth ;)

Originally posted by blue27
Beware of hosting directorys. Reviews are not always what they seem to be and most of the prominent hosts are there because they paid to be.
Not at FMH (TMK), there are no paid spots, hence why getting up the list may bring bonuses ;)

i didn't look around for findmyhosting, no.

Basically I would like to host 2 sites, regular bandwidth, fast and minimal downtime.

I was hosting everything with sapo.pt a free host from portugal. In 2 years Ihad 5 accounts with them and none of my sites were down, not even a single day! and they were very fast too! However they now require you to have an internet account with them, which unless you are in Portugal makes no sense.

I am ok to pay up to up to 10 per month.. could afford a little over 15 but only if I know 100% there is nothing better around and the prices are not inflated.

The Alertra stats at FindMyHosting are done like every 15 minutes or more. That means that if you reboot a server (90 seconds of downtime maybe?) the Alertra stats would show you down the entire 15 minutes (or whatever the repeat rate is). To make things worse, if Alertra at FMH doesn't catch your server down at the 4 times an hour it monitors, it will show your server as up even though it could have 50 minutes or more of downtime in that hour..

What you are willing to spend will certainly get you a reliable host here. Affordablehost and Crediblehost are two solid hosts you would probably be happy with...

well is not that I wouldn't preffer to pay less.. but if paying less means lots of downtime i rather pay a little more.

I was trying out the free host from hostrocket... 2 accounts and lots of downtime!!

Also checked aplus.net.. they seem ok.. but they say "unlimited bandwidth" and today while chatting online with a representative she said "unless you use too much". Wasn't it unlimited?

Stay away from all hosts who offer unlimited bandwidth, period.
They are liars. Unlimited bandwidth doesn't exist.

regarding aplus.net, one thing caught my attention.. i asked if they host any fortune 500 company and she said "bkhomes"

I performed a whois on the domain kbhomes.com and is under ultradns.net ! I mentioned this to the woman and she said "well.. they didn't update the dns.. but they are with us since more than a month ago"

I don't see how that explanation could be possible, but if anybody knows that could be true please tell me.

If they are lying about hosting bkhomes it should come as no suprise. If they are willing to lie about bandwidth it's not a big stretch to lie about other issues.

Yes.. I guess you are right.

Sorry I'm not being more help here canuk, but I don't have a lot of experience with hosts in you price range.
The two that Watcher_TVI mention would be worth checking out though.
Affordablehost and Crediblehost

Sad that a company would stoop so low. I truly doubt that a company would be with a host yet not use them :rolleyes:

They are most likely using ultradns as just their DNS. Ultradns doesn't really offer hosting I don't think. So don't accuse aplus.net of lying. However I have had bad experiences with them.

I dont know but this topic makes me laugh, hehe

Maybe expand your options some and get some more opinions. Choosing a host should not be rushed in to.

I can't agree with this more. before I started my hosting business, I went to FMH and the company I chose had very good ratings. They were the worst host I was ever with. I would just have to say to find something in your price range and talk with them first and go with your instinct.

Originally posted by Watcher_TVI
The Alertra stats at FindMyHosting are done like every 15 minutes or more. That means that if you reboot a server (90 seconds of downtime maybe?) the Alertra stats would show you down the entire 15 minutes (or whatever the repeat rate is). To make things worse, if Alertra at FMH doesn't catch your server down at the 4 times an hour it monitors, it will show your server as up even though it could have 50 minutes or more of downtime in that hour..

What you are willing to spend will certainly get you a reliable host here. Affordablehost and Crediblehost are two solid hosts you would probably be happy with...

Just to clear something up, the Alertra monitoring done at FindMyHosting is done once an hour, not every 15 minutes. So it could work either way... five minutes downtime could show up as an hour or 90 minutes of downtime could show the same thing.

Thanks for clearing that up Coach. I wasn't sure how far apart the tests were, but I know it was pretty far from being an accurate account of uptime..

True Coach, and anyone who's privy to when the ping is sent out would easily work it so they could to upgrades and restarts and still show 0% downtime.

Speed kills...

We dropped p4host like a hot potato after 2 months of frustration...but it's fine if you love the safe mode and "one man bands". :)

I'd personally like my 10 hours of testing back...or a m-16.

3 day manual setup...
manual billing...never got bill...ha ha!
support response to complex questions = "yeah"

Sorry man...but I seriously don't think you should be in the hosting biz...

My 2 scents....ffffffttttttt fffffffffttttttt :D

I use iPowerWeb and haven't noticed any problems. I also have about 40 - 50 customers with them and haven't heard any complaints. My wife used their service for a year and I didn't notice any problems with her site either.

If you don't like iPowerweb and want some other suggestions I would be glad to make a couple of personal recommendations.