Please continue reading to the end of the thread, since the offer is not what it seems!! (I found out later..)

I was looking for a place to host my site (http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=34116) and was thinking about SolidLoad, Hostrocket, Gearhost, Aletia and Site5, whereby Site5 got the best impression after emailing all with a few important questions.

However, just a day before I was going to sign up with Site5, I ran into an amazing offer at ImHosted.com, which is so incredible I can hardly believe it!!! How can they offer something like this:

- 2000MB of Storage Space (!!)
- 20GB of Data Transfer
- Bonus Free Account ($238.80 = 24 months)
- Global Uptime Monitoring
- 99.5% Uptime Guarantee
- Unlimited Domain Pointers
- Unlimited MySQL Databases
- Unlimited POP3 Accounts
- Unlimited Email Space
- Unlimited Subdomains
- Secure Shell (SSH) / Cronjobs
- 24/7 monitoring, UPS & Generator backup, daily tape back-ups
- great control panel
- OC-192 backbone with an additional 155mbps OC3
- 70 to 100 users per server
- unlimited CPU usage (unless abuse)
- 24/7 support (online via AIM/Yahoo!/MSN/ICQ + ticket system + email)
- Uptime (99.998% in last 6 months):
* 95-99.4% = 25% credited
* 90-94.9% = 50% credited
* 0-89.9% = 100% credited

Altogether $19/m with a $10 setup fee, price will not change.
They also have the same offer for $12, but then 1000mb disk space and 12gb transfer. I realize this is a time limited offer, but still! They have been in business for years, site looks extremely professional etc. How can they do this??

Of course I signed up and after testing I have to say: they are good indeed, it's not just cheap. A support ticket was answered and resolved within half an hour (change of main domain + username + password) and the download & upload speeds for both web and ftp are faster than I've seen with my previous 4 hosts. :confused:

I *am* happy but I have a hard time believing the kind of package I just bought for this amount of money... :D

nice advertisement, don't these usually go in the advertising section? lol I"m guessing the service is great, until they actually fill that server up. Then try your download speeds. Also, this is the first i've ever seen "UNLIMTED CPU USAGE" Made me laugh a bit. Next thing you're goign to be telling me that they run Pentium 5 processors right? lol

Would it be possible to reply to this seriously? I was not advertising. I am not working for ImHosted.com, I only got to know about them yesterday. There is nothing to gain for me by posting this here (money wise or friends wise).

change,
sorry about the advertising joke. But the unlimited cpu usage thing still makes me laugh. It's the first time i've heard that one.

I get a 404 when I try ImHosted.com... Speaking of that does anyone know how to change that page in Internet Explorer... it really annoys me.

We can't find "ImHosted.com".

Hi,

Just remember, features along don't price a plan. Offering good customer service, fast servers and bandwidth is expensive. Take those into consideration.

For example, offering everything under the sun for a low price is a common practice on the net. However, to do that, web hosts have to cut costs.

An example: a web host offering CGI for less than 10 dollars. The amount of CPU consumption will increase server costs, as they have to buy more servers if they want to provide fast hosting. If not, the server will be overloaded.

Plus, CGI is one of the things that keep tech support busiest. $10 of revenue, while spending too much on servers and staff, leaves no room for profit. They will *have* to cut something.

So in summary, as I said, features along don't price a plan. Check their network connections, server power, are their servers overloaded?, is tech support *really* knowledgeable, etc? Offering good service is expensive. Always remember that. :)

Peter

hmmm, they have two office, one in Florida the other in australia....I really like their site design, very easy on the eyes..... Ill stay with 3-95.com for now...

i had to type in www.imhosted.com instead of imhosted.com

Nothing on this page (http://imhosted.com/compare_plans.shtml) is close to what you posted. Is there something I'm missing?

ah yeah you do have to type in the www... I'm getting lazy lately and am just using the copy and paste method.

Nothing on this page is close to what you posted. Is there something I'm missing?

It's the special offer on their front page... http://www.imhosted.com/sp_offer.html

Originally posted by inogenius
I get a 404 when I try ImHosted.com... Speaking of that does anyone know how to change that page in Internet Explorer... it really annoys me.

We can't find "ImHosted.com".

Weird.. I never got that error. Just tested again and it loads fine :confused: (doh, when I load it to look for the cpu thing, it did give me a 404.. refresh solved it)

You can change the page, don't remember how anymore tho, sorry!

Matt:
Lemme quote what they say in exact words
"All our servers are equipped with blazing fast CPU processors and it is for this reason, along with a low cpu:user ratio that we can offer unlimited CPU usage. All plans carry a non-restricted usage on the CPU, however if we find that you abuse our system resources we will ask you to remove the offending script. We apply this restriction simply to keep our servers problem free and in top notch condition."

So it's not *really* unlimited, I just summarized that by putting '(unless abuse)' behind it. I guess you could read it as a marketing talk saying you have unlimited cpu usage with limits :P But still.. they use a low site:server ratio, so that alone should make it possible that you can use cpu more than with high site:server ratios. Plus I just thought they wouldn't put many customers on a server when they give each one 2000mb...

Looking at their normal plan (not this time limited offer), I probably wouldn't have considered them and would have gone for Site5 btw...

So in summary, as I said, features along don't price a plan. Check their network connections, server power, are their servers overloaded?, is tech support *really* knowledgeable, etc? Offering good service is expensive. Always remember that.

You are very right there Peter. That's why I would never just go for the cheapest plan/host. Site5 wasn't the cheapest in the bunch either.

Before signing up I checked:
- network connections: as far as I can see the connections are fast (20 hi-speed OC-3 lines) and they claim to connect to the net through 7 independent suppliers
- server power: Intel Pentium III CPUs with 1,000Mb of SDRAM and 80GB 7200 RPM hard drives.. no SCSI it seems, but good enough for me (not sure if all hosters use all the caching they use?)
- sites:server ratio = about 70-100:1 (I've read on this forum a good ratio remains below 200)
- support: as stated above, they resolved my problems quickly.. of course I am in the money-back period, but the way their support emails look and how they implemented support everywhere, it's pretty good until now..

I know what it's like to have bad support, I've had quite a few issues in the past. I have been searching through their site to find a catch about this offer.. but I couldn't find it. And when I read that 65% of their customers are referred by existing customers.. that must mean something right? And they claim to be active for years.. experience counts too..

I am just thinking: this is too good to be true, am I such a sucker for marketing and is it all just general crap on their site or make-believe? That's why I posted this message.. trying to find out what other people think of it and if they have experience with ImHosted... (couldn't find much using search)

Change,
For future information, just because they allow you 2gb of storage space doesn't mean that a 100 user server has a 200gb hard drive. THey play the numbers game like most/all hosts have to in order to stay alive. I'll admit, I have a few servers like that. Everyone does. If all of my users were to take up all their space, i'd need some new hardware. I'm prepared in case they magically do. Also, you may want to find out how many accounts they actually have on the server. If you can telnet to your account, you should be able to see how many accounts reside on the server. If you're not running unix, i'm not sure if this is possible.

What is a domain pointer

Can I host two seperate sites with one special offer

Originally posted by Kaiser_Sose
What is a domain pointer

Can I host two seperate sites with one special offer

A domain pointer does the following:
www.seconddomain.com --points to--> www.maindomain.com/seconddomain

This is not through invisible frames (like vdirect does for example), but through DNS, so invisible to the user in any way.

This way you could host two sites in one account, but remember that only the main domain can have subdomains and seperate forwards for seperate email addresses etc. The seconddomain is limited in a few possibilities when you use domain pointers.


Matt:
I'll ask the technical guy in my team to check for that, thanks for the suggestion. And indeed, I already thought it would be kind of like you said with hosters not assuming everyone will use their webspace completely. I still do think however, that chances are higher that there are less accounts on one server because of the size of the accounts. Unless they spread them all up... oh well.. at least I only have one domain that uses quite some resources, the rest barely none.. that helps :D I'd better make sure to fill the 2gb then too, so there can be less users on the server ;)

Alright, I tried to see how many accounts were on the server by logging into SSH, cd .. and ls. But no permission, so I can't check that myself I guess.

About customer support. I had trouble opening a connection to a mySQL db using PHP and opened a ticket. After 20 hours I still had no answer (while they state on the site typical is 6-12 hours for a response), but by then I had figured it out myself by trying and trying. After all it was a pretty basic thing which I probably should have been able to guess after reading their knowledge base on mySQL, but still..

A few hours ago I opened two other tickets. One about a unique IP request and one for a second root FTP account. No reply yet (apart from the autoresponder of course).

I cancelled the first ticket by email and asked them why it took longer than advertised.

Server speed is still incredibly fast to me and I love the control panel. Only have my doubts about support. But I have 27 days to go to evaluate them :)

Alright, I tried to see how many accounts were on the server by logging into SSH, cd .. and ls. But no permission, so I can't check that myself I guess. Try this:
$cat /etc/passwd
to see how many accounts are on the server...

Also note from their web site... All shared web hosting accounts come with an initial minimal file allowance of 5000 files per domain. and
Any database stored on imhosted.com servers shall be limited in size to 20% of the total disk space allotted for a particular domain. and Examples of non-acceptable content or links: Pirated software, Hackers programs or archives, Warez sites, MP3, and IRC bots.

That worked, thanks. Currently 69 accounts on the server.

What does this mean tho?
"initial minimal file allowance of 5000 files per domain"
If it would say 'maximum' I would understand.. but minimal?? Currently have about 4000 files in public_html.. I sure hope it doesn't mean I can't go over 5000!!!

20% is plenty because I have 2gb now.. I doubt I will ever have a db size of 400mb.. (around 8mb at the moment)

I don't use any of that content, so I'm fine :)

Thanks for pointing all that out!

Well.. it's almost 2 days later and I have not had a reply on my support tickets or the general inquiry. So NO WAY their typical response time is 6-12 hours, like advertised on the site.

Without answers to my support questions I cannot continue building up and testing my new host... plus I have discovered another negative point in their AUP:

- you can have a maximum of 70% media files (of the disk space amount used)

How the hell can they ask this? I figure it's quite easy to go over that limit, since html is very small and images very large. If you host a few photography pages on the site you go over the 70% in no time!

Plus I've looked into the 5000 files thing, and you pay $9.95/mo for every block of 5000 files (excl. the first block). So in effect, you don't get 2000mb for $19, but you get 5000 files for $19 (which accumulates to about 100-150mb).


This has lead me to make a move to Site5 after all and I will probably make use of my 30-day money back guarantee since they don't deliver what has been promised (support wise at least).

Don't you hate small print.....

change can I ask why you rejected the other hosts and went with site5 instead. I just got an account with gearhost (to see how they do and so far so good) but I was also evaluating alteia, SolidLoad and Hostrocket. Was there a compelling reasons as to why you went Site5 and not the other hosts and I guess more to the point as well as to why you did not pick Gearhost.

I am not sure if this is appropriate to ask Change and if it is not feel free to ignore it

m1sh,

First of all, I did not choose gearhost because they don't offer *nix hosting and I really need *nix hosting.

Hostrocket I did not choose because I think there are too many negative experiences posted about them on this board.

This left me with Aletia, SolidLoad & Site5. I emailed all three with questions about their hosting offer last Saturday. Both Aletia & Site5 sent me an automated message, confirming they had received my email and would get back to me. SolidLoad did not send anything until today (that is 5 days), so no SolidLoad for me. Aletia did not send me any emails after the autoresponder, so no Aletia either.

This left Site5 as the site with best (sales) customer support. The replies I received from Site5 were professional and friendly. Not always very fast, but fast enough. Since the ImHosted offer probably turns out to be a fiasco, I will see how Site5 is when I'm actually hosted there..

I'm not sure why you felt this would not be appropriate btw.. I hope this answered your question(s).

Well I am kinda new to this forum and not having done much lurking around here am not too sure about what the etiquette might be etc.

Thanks for the info Change, much appreciated.

Hi change,

Would you mind keeping on posting about your experiences with Site5? I'm pretty curious since I'd like to change webhosts and was wondering if you could provide some things you don't like about site5... also could you let me nkow how many users are put on each machine? Thanks!!

Incidentally.. it seems that Aletia and Site5 are both hosting from Parsippany NJ.. that's where I live.. so when I go back home for spring break, I might consider visiting some of their facilities.. get the *inside scoup* :)

www.imhosted.com deal must be all gone, i get a Error: 403 Forbidden :rolleyes: :eek:


WoodiE

BowNanC,

So far my experiences with Site5 have been very good. Support is responsive and friendly (I only use email support) and everything has worked as advertised.

The speed is a bit worse compared to my previous host (***********), but good enough for now. They have told me they plan to upgrade from 100mbit to 1000mbit within 6 months.

Currently there are about 90 users on my server. Load balances have been high at times, but it is their policy to suspend an account temporarily and automatically when it becomes a resource hog. In about 2 months they want to offer a 'High Usage' plan for people who want to share a server with less people.

So until now I'm very satisfied. Only negative point would be speed, I hope that's just because they are located in SF (I believe), while I'm on the other side of the world (Netherlands).

If you want to check speed, I could PM you a few url's. Let me know (in a PM).


Btw, about ImHosted: after sending them a request for cancellation, I got a reply within an hour that my request was forwarded to the correct person and within half a day the account was cancelled.. this highly surprised me since normal support takes DAYS. Do they want to get rid of customers and make money from the $10 setup fees or something??

WoodiE, the site and the offer still work for me, but I would think twice before signing up with them if I were you.. Speed is great, control panel is great, but support is non existant (per email) and they deceive potential customers..

Originally posted by inogenius
I get a 404 when I try ImHosted.com... Speaking of that does anyone know how to change that page in Internet Explorer... it really annoys me.

We can't find "ImHosted.com".

I don't know that you can change that page as a user, but if the server sends a big enough 404 page, IE won't use its own page.

-Chris.

Originally posted by Change
So until now I'm very satisfied. Only negative point would be speed, I hope that's just because they are located in SF (I believe), while I'm on the other side of the world (Netherlands).Just to clear this point up... our servers are actually located within the same data center that IMhosted.com's are. Their servers, however, appear to be hosted on the DCJN network (a separate sub-network that was setup within NAC to offer bandwidth at very low prices), as opposed to the main network (which all of our servers and dedicated server customers are on). Have a look:
Tracing route to imhosted.com [64.247.26.194]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

.....
14 93 ms 90 ms 133 ms nac-1.border11.nyc.pnap.net [209.191.130.94]
15 94 ms 96 ms 88 ms a9-0-1165.msfc1.oct.nac.net [209.123.11.10]
16 99 ms 100 ms 94 ms fxp0.aggr1.oct.dcjn.net [209.123.37.26]
17 103 ms 95 ms 98 ms core1.dcjn.pwebtech.com [209.123.182.242]
18 101 ms 95 ms 101 ms 64.247.26.194

Trace complete.You may find--however unlikely--that response times from this network are slightly faster, simply because of the variation within the providers and your particular location. Overall, though, the main network should have much better performance than the DCJN network.

Thanks for clearing this up Matt, but maybe it's not the route that determines the speed in my case but the bandwidth available per customer. I tested this by opening two different images in my browser and then look at the transfer speed.

I also tested loading of pages. ImHosted say they run tons of optimizers, not sure if that has influence on it as well. I know Site5 runs Zend as well..

So I have no idea what causes it, but for me the speed at Site5 *was* noticably slower than both at ImHosted.com and at *********** (my previous hosting provider). Before Hostex my main site was hosted at Superb.net and all three (Site5, Hostex, ImHosted) are definitely faster than them, to put this test into perspective..

I also asked a friend of mine, located in the UK and on a 56k modem (I'm on 1.5mbps cable), to test the speed and he said Site5 was fastest of the three.. :) So I guess it's just me, but I can't be sure.