I'm looking for a hosting plan (reseller or not) for my web site. I would like to provide my customers w/a free e-mail account as a way to promote my business. I would also like to provide any customer w/a free account to host their small (10mb) web site w/their own FTP and POP account, as well as a subdomain....again, as a way to promote my business. For now, I'm on a less than $30/month budget and therefore am willing to start with a smaller plan and upgrade as more users sign up. However, many of the hosts I've looked at (cwi hosting, host rocket, etc.) that offer what I'm looking for have issues that make me weary before signing up (ie. no uptime guarantee, too many bad customer reviews, etc.). Today, I found MCHost when I came to this site. I went to their site and looked at their reseller plans. All of which look great and have the features I'm looking for. I even looked through their forum to see if there were any negative reviews. And I saw NONE! So they're offering unlimited everything starting at $30/month and $0 setup fee and no complaints!? Am I missing something here? I know from experience that you get what you pay for and unlimted e-mail, FTP, subdomains, and 1GB of space for $30 is extremely low! How do they survive offering so much for so little w/no complaints? If anyone is currently hosting with them...please share your HONEST comments. Thanks!

Well you are on fixed space and bandwidth. The e-mail is stored on your space so there isn't unlimited e-mail storage. What makes it even better is the recent increase (again!) in bandwidth. :)

Now as for your plans, do you plan to do full out domain hosting in the forseen future? I ask because I personally don't find it good to start giving away e-mail addresses and subdomains on ones business domain as the users attach to your domain. Anything they do is reflected onto you for the most part... and it can make it easier for someone to mimic "staff".

Anyway, I've been with MCHost since late August and support has been great as well as the community forums there. They use cpanel which is ok, but I DO NOT recommend using any of the scripts on that thing. It's easier to just install what you need separately.

Just to note: Don't always just assume there weren't any bad reviews of a host on their own message boards because you can't see them. I am in no way saying not to trust MCHost, it's just a tip. The saleman isn't there to point out the flaws. :)

Now as for your plans, do you plan to do full out domain hosting in the forseen future? I ask because I personally don't find it good to start giving away e-mail addresses and subdomains on ones business domain as the users attach to your domain. Anything they do is reflected onto you for the most part... and it can make it easier for someone to mimic "staff".

As far as e-mail goes, the customer will have to read/send e-mails by logging in on my site, and I will have a signature placed on all outgoing e-mails. I would like to have a limit for each customer, but don't know how I would be able to monitor that.

As far as hosting, for this particular site...subdomains will be it. When I open my hosting business in the near future, I will offer full domains. Customers wanting web space will be required to meet certain criteria and therefore will be approved, rejected, or kicked off as I see fit. Since my site is for weather fans and Meteorologists, the hosting offer is only going to extend to those with a "weather" related site. So basically, I'm not offering free hosting to just anyone.

Originally posted by mmarron79
As far as e-mail goes, the customer will have to read/send e-mails by logging in on my site, and I will have a signature placed on all outgoing e-mails. I would like to have a limit for each customer, but don't know how I would be able to monitor that.

As far as hosting, for this particular site...subdomains will be it. When I open my hosting business in the near future, I will offer full domains. Customers wanting web space will be required to meet certain criteria and therefore will be approved, rejected, or kicked off as I see fit. Since my site is for weather fans and Meteorologists, the hosting offer is only going to extend to those with a "weather" related site. So basically, I'm not offering free hosting to just anyone.

Ahhh ok. :) Well if they have to login to send receive you can limit them. However with popmail accounts if they figure out how to, they'll be able to just use the smtp for outgoing e-mail which you won't be able to limit unless the gang can figure out a way to set that up for just the domain using exim.

Sounds as though you've thought things out a bit and are pretty well ready to get moving with it all. If you need anymore info from people that host there you can post on the mchost forums. There may be a few people that either don't check here or won't post here due to their own reasons. :)

I don't know how they do it either. After using four different hosting services in the last 5 years I signed up with them in July 2001.

Support, while not perfect, is better than anywhere else I have tried.

The community support on their forum board is unsurpassed and the most valuable part of their service.

Improvements to their service occur almost daily and are often based on user feedback.

Try them for a couple months and you will see why we all like them so much.

I will warn you to read through the posts on registering your name servers. THis is probably the most misunderstood part (and vital) part of getting set up and running quickly.

Good luck