Unfortunately, I was right. I've been trying to talk a client of mine into switching hosts.

While I finally convinced him that NT was not reliable, and that a hosting company that doesn't bother to update their stat package's search engine file to include Google, is probably not too on the ball, he wanted to delay until after his busy season. Well, we've been down for going on three hours now, and he is ready to switch.

I had already been recommending what look like very reliable hosts -- FutureQuest and JaguarPC. Both have:

1) multiple big pipes from different vendors
2) uptime gurantee
3) plenty of seemingly happy customers
4) well configured *nix platforms
5) fast friendly 24/7 support
6) information on their site that makes sense (good FAQ's, etc.)

I'm pretty convinced that either of these hosts would be a good choice at reasonable prices. My client, though, is willing to pay more if there was some justification that the host would be *even more* reliable.

So, if you're willing to pay, what else is there that would lead you to believe that a host was reliable?

~~
Just doin' a little CYA and my A is pretty big.

Rackspace...

Your client will NOT be sorry they chose futurequest. period.

Thanks for the replies.

Rackspace may actually be a possibility. My client threw out a figure of $400 a month which I think gets us in on Rackspace's least expensive plans.

Still a dedicated server of any stripe really seems like overkill for a site that does about .5 gig half the year and 2-4 gig the other half, mostly static pages, a couple of forms, limited db for referal tracking.

Isn't there any virtual hosting service that provides the equivelent of Rackspace's "fanatical support?" I think as lateron pointed out, FutureQuest might come the closest.

If you're looking for service and support, I would also recommend RackSpace.

Based on what I have seen in here, there are a lot of happy Rackspace customers.

What about www.voxel.net ? They seem to know what they're doing :)

I'm always on the lookout for reliable host with GREAT SUPPORT.

1st choice - Futurequest - Very reliable with great support. Take a read into their forum and you would realised that no one is complaining. From my observation, people only leave Futurequest when they need to get dedicated which Futurequest doesn't offer. 100% uptime is very common in Futuquest. The only thing is the price which i would consider high, BUT you do get back in terms of reliability and quality hosting.

The 2nd host that i would recommend is VenturesOnline - Great host with great support. Not that expensive compared to Futurequest.

The above choices are my personal recommendation.

Does JaguarPC give you direct telnet access? I found a very interesting article at Sitepoint showing you valuable information you can find out about your host and the servers they use via telnet commands.
"Have you ever wondered how many users use the same machine as you? One way to find out is to type "cd; cd .." This brings you to one directory lower than the one where you started. Now type "ls". This will give you a listing of all the files in this directory. You will normally see all the home directories of all the other users, hence the login names of everyone who is hosted on this machine. If not, try "cd .." and then "ls" again. However, do not explore other people's home directories; this usually won't work and is against your ISP's user agreement. If you see 800 names in this directory, this is a sign that your host may have put a few too many websites on one server.

You can also type "w" (short for who) to see everyone who is logged into this particular machine. Here's what I get on one of my machines:


4:41pm up 122 day(s), 6:58, 5 users, load average: 0.21, 0.11, 0.09User tty login@ idle JCPU PCPU whatjohns pts/1 2Dec00 1day 8 bashyahoos pts/10 8:05am 1 vi index.htmlehumorce pts/2 2:15pm 2 -cshowen pts/13 4:41pm 1 wowen pts/12 3:30pm 1 -csh

You first see the uptime output (again) and that five users are currently logged in. The last column tells what the user is doing. The users in this example are running bash and csh (the standard command prompt), w (what we're doing right now), and vi (a traditional text editor)."

More interesting stuff at Sitepoints site, anyways back to the subject........FutureQuest quality,reliability(you get what you pay for)

If you are really serious about uptime, you can sign up for Conxion's FailSafe product. They reportedly have had 2199 days of consecutive up days for those customers:

http://www.conxion.com/products/products.asp

Originally posted by figment88
Still a dedicated server of any stripe really seems like overkill for a site that does about .5 gig half the year and 2-4 gig the other half, mostly static pages, a couple of forms, limited db for referal tracking.

A valid point, but if uptime and reliability is important to him he should go for a dedicated. On a shared server from now and then there are users abusing the server resources and bringing the others down. Of course, a good host takes care of that, but only a dedicated server can give you real reliability.

but only a dedicated server can give you real reliability. Note however that the above is only true if:

*) You have an admin for the server that knows what s/he is doing. If those controlling the server do not understand the OS, and how to set everything up for the site being served, then there can, and will, be problems.

*) The network the server is sitting on is solid

*) The company the dedicated server is obtained from is solid

When/if searching for dedicated services be sure to do your homework just as you would for shared hosting.... if not more so. To get *everything* how you want it to be, dedicated is the way to go, just remember that it is usually your responsibility to make *everything* how you want it to be and if that ability isn't there then things can go wrong in expensive ways on the other hand, if you do have that ability, then by all means go for it! :D

You can also type "w" (short for who) to see everyone who is logged into this particular machine. Here's what I get on one of my machines:

4:41pm up 122 day(s), 6:58, 5 users, load average: 0.21, 0.11, 0.09User tty login@ idle JCPU PCPU whatjohns pts/1 2Dec00 1day 8 bashyahoos pts/10 8:05am 1 vi index.htmlehumorce pts/2 2:15pm 2 -cshowen pts/13 4:41pm 1 wowen pts/12 3:30pm 1 -csh

You first see the uptime output (again) and that five users are currently logged in. The last column tells what the user is doing. The users in this example are running bash and csh (the standard command prompt), w (what we're doing right now), and vi (a traditional text editor)."

This is why I like Ensims 3.0 release. It keeps most prying eyes away. Not because I don't want people to see the server stats, but for privacy of all our users and security.

Also, Deb maybe right about a ded server, but there are a lot of places offering Virtual dedicated servers which give you benifits of full ded, and most are fully managed like a shared. Do a search to find one.

I recently signed up with Ventures Online because they were so highly regarded here. The first problem I had was that my password would not work. Their support said I was entering it wrong and try again. I had 5 people try it over and over, no go. When I contacted them again they said it HAD to be my entering it wrong, and issued a new one - which worked the first time I tried.

Then once I uploaded my site to the folder they told me to use in the welcome email (which I thought wasn't right to begin with) my site wouldn't work. Contacted support, they said I uploaded to the wrong place. They didn't say why they told me to do otherwise in the email...

Once in the control panel only about 2/3rds of the stuff worked. More emails, was told that what didn't work I would have to find and upload to the site myself. Hmmmm, one of the reasons I singed up was for the control panel. Was this better than the host I was coming from? No. I know many people have wonderful experiences with VO or they wouldn't have such a fine reputation - I must have been a fluke? Who knows.

I went to Futurequest. It worked! Everything - and I love them! I only needed support once and they responded 2 minutes later with an answer that was extremely helpful. They have great tutorials on their site too.

2 or 3 months ago, I posted a blind request, using the HostMatch service on TopHosts.com for Virtual and Virtual Dedicated hosting.
To both requests, Rackspace replied that I could get a Dedicated Server with them, starting at US$130 a month. Much less than the prices they quote on their web site normally.

Another great way to go would be to get a Virtual Dedicated Server with our current web hosting ISP (for Virtual), which is OLM. IMHO, they are one of the best for Virtual hosting and probably for a Virtual Dedicated Server they would also be hard to beat. I believe their Virtual Dedicated Servers start at US$59 a month.