Hi,

Couple ?'s:

Is it typical for a shared web hosting account to be automatically (and therefore more or less instantly) setup when ordered online, or is manual setup the standard?

Does anyone have experience with Elite Internet Communications (http://www.eicomm.net)? I read that they are the host used by Anandtech (http://www.anandtech.com/IT/showdoc.html?i=1514&p=8) (follow the link to see the artical). They're prices seem good, and if they're good enough for the folks at anandtech than I'd assume they're good enough for me (but it never hurts to get other opinions). I'm looking for a good host that I can scale from a shared account to a dedicated or co-located account with.

Thanks!

Ian

It depends on the way their website (and server) is seup. If the site interacts with the backend of the server it can open the account automatically. If it doesn't then someone has to open the account manually.

Hope that helps! :)

Originally posted by ibrandt
Is it typical for a shared web hosting account to be automatically (and therefore more or less instantly) setup when ordered online, or is manual setup the standard?

A lot of hosts used to have this, but due to fraud, in most cases new accounts have to be approved first. At any rate, this shouldn't take more than a couple of hours, and certainly not over 24 hours.

IMHO the value of instant setup is also pretty overrated.

Often DNS changes need to go through first anyway ( at least for IP-less accounts ) before the site is accessible, and also there is the fact that people often spend a lot of time researching and evaluating hosts. A few more hours/a day extra doesn't really matter I would say.

Hi,

Thanks for the responses on the account setup. Good to know what to expect. :)

Ian

We offer instant set up on our shared accounts but not our reseller, VPS or dedicated accounts. The risk is not that big with a $10 account. I wouldn't want instant activation on a dedicated server though!!! You would be a magnet for fraud.

Oh I would never assume automated setup of a dedicated service. I figure most people customize their server for dedicated solutions, no? No way you're automating that. I'd guess shared is a different story though.

Anyway, I don't mind waiting. As ASPCode mentioned before, it takes time for the domain to transfer anyway. I was more wondering if automated setup was the standard these days, and therefore could be used as an indicator of a hosts maturity. The answer it seems is no.

Thanks Again!

Ian

Originally posted by ibrandt
I was more wondering if automated setup was the standard these days, and therefore could be used as an indicator of a hosts maturity.

Considering it isn't that hard to have a good web programmer make it happen, I don't think you can use it to judge maturity. But it is definately a sign of trust. Besides, if you are putting a credit card number in when you sign up and the website authorizes it before it opens the account than fraud is almost impossible.

Is that most of the time the accounts don't work -_- Then you have to submit trouble tickets to get whatever doesn't work working... by the time you've got your service working right, you're frustrated and ready to get your money back. I would rather wait a day and have everything working right away (i.e., I didn't get instant activation with CQhost.com but everything worked the moment I received my email) than instant setup (i.e., my current frustration with Smarthosting.com -- which actually isn't that bad after all the headaches of initial setup, other than slow support and disappearing 'automated' emails)

The only account that I've ever had instant setup on that worked perfectly from day one was InternetPlanners.com.

edit: my bad... my current host Gearhost.com was instant, and I didn't have any problems... although, I'm trying to figure out where the heck my domains went ?_? but that may be an ochiba issue, not a GearHost issue... sorry for not giving props where they were due ^_^