Yesterday I ordered a service from smartwebhosting.com to check them out. They offer 500MB of space as well as 50Gig transfer (with supposedly no BS disclaimer lines like Liquidweb uses stating that you can't use more than yadda yadda of system resources or they shut down your site --i.e., the new unlimited bandwidth marketing ploy).

However, I just got my service and I went to my control panel and nothing works. Plus my .htaccess and pwrd files show up on my cute FTP account in the public_html (www) directory, and I don't even have to type to see more in telnet to access them. I dunno much about these files, but doesn't that mean that I have to configure my .htaccess cuz anyone can break into my password protected sections? Now, I won't jump to conclusions because every webhost that I have ever signed up is funky on the first day. I usually take that for granted. Still, 50 Gig of transfer for only 40 bucks a month seems too good to be true...

Has anyone here had any experience with them? If you have would you please tell me if I should run or stay?

If you have any other suggestions, please let me know too. I'm looking for a webhost to replace my current one after my 3 month contract expires, and I need a lot for nothing. I need a host that will allow me to have multiple domains, multiple FTP accounts, SSI, Shell access, subdomains, and at least 500MB of space with at least 20Gig of transfer and I need them to do this for no more than 50-70 bucks a month. My current host offers me a little more than this for 30 something a month, but many of their options don't work, and their support sucks eggs. I don't want to be stuck with them again, so please if you know whether smarthosting.com is good or if you know of another host, please let me know.


thanks for your help!

sincerely,
ochiba

Wow I had a smarthosting.com account a few years ago :) At that time they did not have a control panel however service and support were good to excellent. I never had a problem with them. However that was a few years ago, times do change :D

Do you mean Smartwebservice? http://smartwebservice.com

or smartwebhosting.com?
or smarthosting.com?

Originally posted by ochiba
Yesterday I ordered a service from smartwebhosting.com...

Sorry about that. The service is called smarthosting but they've got a bunch of other names too that you can pick from when you start your service. I ordered the Special 2 account. Their customer service/sales was very helpful when I ordered over the phone.

smarthosting is pretty decent. I find that hard to believe. After two days of joke service, and several emails asking what the heck was wrong they sent me a message saying that they moved me to another server rather than fix the problems on the other server. Then after another day of asking about my password change (which didn't work on either server) and then learning that the add on's that I paid for didn't work either, I wrote them again and said forget it, it wasn't worth my time. I switched to gearhost instead. Gearhost is cheaper and so far *everything* works and it was working before I even got off of the phone with the sales rep! Well this is funny, they don't refund folks for the add-ons they sell. So I was like okay, I'll understand if they don't want to give me my add-ons refund, but I did inform them that they hadn't even set up my add-ons! Well I just got an email back, and instead of confirming that my account was cancelled they wrote:


Dear Sir/Madam,

This is a confirmation message to inform you that the domain to domain
alias for lamergirl.net has been setup.

You can now go to your Guide of your master account, and select the
domain name from the pull-down button to use the Guide for this domain
name.

Please, let us know of any further questions...

Sincerely,

SmartHosting Team

::laughs:: I wasn't expecting the add-ons back, but they didn't have to be shoddy about the daggone thing x_O; Maybe I should chalk it off to them not having a clue? Doesn't matter. I deserve that for being stupid. I wish I found this board before I ordered their services.

but then again, some folks here seem to think they are all right.

bleh.

ochiba

I can't even begin to tell you how much of a nightmare my stay on smarthosting was (given it was 2-3yrs ago), I'd stay away at all costs unless they've done some serious una$$ing.

Oddly enough *all* of my trouble tickets were answered right after I said I wanted to cancel, and they claim that they already set up my add ons before they read my cancellation emails, I'm like, "Dude, it's o.k.a.y. your service sucks I'm lame for doing add ons before actually checking out to see if it would work, I'll live without 17.50 and call it a learning experience"

Oh and to top it off they sent me a link to their *cancellation form* which didn't work by the way. So I get to the form and it's a text document all garbled and run in together. And it says fill this bad boy out and fax it to us (I have to fax it) or else we'll still consider that you want our god awful services and bill you for the rest of your life while you're not looking. Then we'll *email* you with confirmation.

*cough* aol tactics *cough*

Double Bleh.

ochiba

I just wanna clear this up?

This is not the same company as Smartwebservice?

I have always found smartwebservice to be very, very good!

No, smarthosting.com has no affiliation with us. :-)

Like she said. ^_^ Actually, I never heard of smartwebservice. I think I'm pretty content now with my 3 hosts (soon to be 2). However, I'll definitely take a peek at them just in case I win the lottery and still can't find that download-a-life script I hear everyone talking about.

again, my apologies! don't want to give the wrong companies a bad business rep, especially if they are as good as you claim.

ochiba

I'm sorry but that's a little too much for me for a little too little. For a hundred and fifty you can rent yourself a dedicated server, or buy about three to five 300-750MB 30Gig transfer accounts from many other hosts, tie them all together, and have yourself a merry time with a crud load of space and 90 to 150 Gig of transfer. I understand that a lot of the more expensive hosts provide excellent quality service, but at the same time, there *are* cheaper resources that can give you the same thing. Just my opinion. Not ragging on smartwebservice's quality or service at all (after all, ya can't knock it til ya try it).

Just commenting on their pricing scale.


ochiba the penny-pinching miser.

btw Kwimberl is male AFAIK ;)

Well from dealing I have had with them in the past (I do not work for them btw) They seem to be offering the more secure, reliable services that you really need to pay more for. Uptime is more like 100% I found. I think there is definatly a market for more expensive hosting. It is just WHT seems to attract the budget hoster.

Definatly recommend SWS. Fast and more importantly reliable. :D


EDIT: In the whole duration of having an account with them I have received 100% uptime. 42 days we have had an account now.

Sorry Kwimberl ;_; I won't make that mistake again!


ochiba