I have been using Communitech.net for 2.5 years, and other then price had very few problems with them. Now that Interland bought them, I figured it’s time to look what is happening around.

The current prices seem to be much cheaper, and the packages look very good too. So I read various postings on WebHostTalk and decided to try Gearhost.com. Bryan (the owner) seems to be a nice guy, very personable and knowledgeable. All went well until they overcharged me. The promised refund never came, my emails were ignored and my phone calls not returned.

How do those people intend to stay in business??

Needless to say, I cancelled my accounts (two) withing the 30-day guarantee period, and notify my bank of the dispute.

Back to search... Found a nice host ehostPros.com. A nice package, a nice guy (Rupi) - the email doesn’t work for more than two days already - since my domains propagated. All the replies to my support email essentially say: we fixed the problem, it should work now...

My needs are not very complicated: I use my accounts primarily for my own personal and business email (incoming primarily, no spam or mass mailings)

I need a host that will have:

1. Very few restrictions on size of the messages and mailboxes
2. That will support IMAP4, POP3 and web mail access
3. Have an SMTP server
4. Catchall email account
5. Allow more than one domain in the account
6. Have an easy and usable Control Panel
7. Static IP
8. Decent web space, over (100Mb) and a reasonable bandwidth
9. At least 15 email accounts.
10. Frontpage Extensions
11. A telephone support for situations where everything else fails...

A good IMAP4 server is important to me as is less than $10 a monthly fee.


Is there any host that can provide “all” the above or am I in “dreamland”?

Reuven

You're really asking for a lot for under $10 a month. Yes there might be companies willing to offer that, but they'll have to cut corners, resulting in a poor level of overall quality. If you really need things like phone support, you'll probably have to pay around $20 a month.

Now if you can live without a couple of those features, I do think you'll be able to get quality hosting for under 10 bucks.

Check 'em out. If the first set of packages don't work, the economy package might. The latter means 12-24 hours tech support, not an hour or two, as I understand it. And he'll add an IP for a modest amount.

I've found the host, David Unthank, to be the most responsive of the dozens I've been talking with in my own investigation. And his ethics and standards of service are by all signs of the highest caliber.

They're a relatively new host, tho, so you have to be willing to take that risk. I'm in all likelihood about to sign up, tho my decision is not quite 100% yet. If I do, I'll report back here in a month or three to tell you how it pans out.

One more thing: he's overtly Christian with such messages on his page. While a possible turn-off to many folks, myself included, I specifically discussed this with him. He's also a strong supporter of free speech and hosts all kinds of sites, tho not adult and other kinds that are not allowed on many hosts.
-lateron

(And for those of you who demand the host have impeccable site design, this ain't the one for you. Tho it's by no means terrible.)

A static IP is really not needed in any way at all, unless you are running your own secure certificate or something like that.

Since accorn has just kept this thread alive, let me make a correction to my post herein about integrahosting.com. I said previously that one would be taking the risk of integra being a new host....Well, turns out they're about a year and half old - not new in this biz!

So that makes them even a better choice, I believe. I think my scores of hours of researching hosts have resulted in the discovery of a relatively unknown gem, and an inexpensive one at that. Like I said before, I'll post here in a couple months after I've had some real experience with them.

See my previous post for more info if you're interested.
-lateron