Hello to all! I'm new to this board, and really happy to find this kind of reference and knowledge base. Excellent information!

I went through the whole 6 page hosting thread, looking at every site listed. I am looking specifically for a host that meets my needs. I can't believe what's out there.

There are sites that are down. Yeah right - I'm going to check back tomorrow.

There are sites that take forever to load. Closed those windows in a hurry.

There are sites that I had to scroll left to right, and I have my screen resolution set at 1024 x 768. Granted, I keep the IE favorites bar visible, but it's still ridiculous.

There was one site where I had to scroll down 2 screens, on 2 separate pages, to get past the ads to see the hosting plans!

And then, you would think that before people hang out their business shingle, they would see what is competitive pricing in the market. Come on now! For Unix hosting, $20 monthly for 20 megs of storage, 1000 MB traffic, and no CGI? I'd hide my head in the sand rather than make plans like that public.

Someone in an earlier thread mentioned not quickly finding pricing for hosting plans. I encountered the same problem. I would go 2 levels deep, and if the prices were still not available, the window closed. Also, I found the hosting plans listed under many different names: Hosting, Products, Solutions(?),and many others.

Out of all those I looked at, I did find 5 that come close to meeting my needs, though none were perfect. I see that my top choice doesn't take credit cards - I would have to mail them checks. Real convenient for monthly plans. Some don't have re-seller plans - one says to feel free to resell, at no discount in price! (Mark it up all you want!)

By the way, I'm not trying to be negative, I'm more amused than anything.

Thanks again for this site and this service!

Greg

It's for those reasons and others that choosing a host isn't as simple as deciding burgers or pizza.

Did you find any that met your needs and contact them? Even going past the website, IMO it's service that really seperates good hosts from poor ones. How quickly (or not) you get a reply from tech support, how much the sales staff knows their products, can they provide tips or ideas for web development or products, etc.

As the saying goes, you have to kiss a lot of frogs to find your Prince.

Interesting observation! I know the list has grown to several pages now.
I would just like to comment if youve narrowed down your choices..you should email them..and also compare which one has the most features for the price.
This board is excellent!
Good Luck and Happy Holidays!











Happy Holidays from HostCaters
http://www.hostcaters.com/holiday.html

Sometimes I think people put too much into this hosting arena. I myself have done several research into hosting companies just to remain competitive. I also feel like you do, sites loading slow and not being able to find things etc. But I had to ask myself, is this all that important to me? There are several important things that we should consider. Time has made humans very impatient. Tech support is very important, customer service is very imporat. Send the host an e-mail and see how quickly they respond, call them and see if someone answers if that's what they're selling. A fancy site doesn't mean good service and a very quick loading site doesn't mean good service, even though it's important.

You're looking to host for yourself and you may do a better job yourself that than the provider. Who is to say that the provider wants to spend thousands to create a very nice page? Guess who pays? You do. I've even seen sites that looks like a 12 year old made it but the service was excellent. Remember image isn't everything.

Good luck in your search, I hope this made some sense.

Indeed that's one of the problems of the hosting industry today, there is allot of Junk out there, but you don't have to settle for it, I can honestly say that in that list you will find some outstanding hosting companies, also, if you need more reference, you might whant to check http://www.hostsearch.com .. this way if you find a host you like, take a look at hostserach and see what people are saying about those specific hosts (Just an idea)

cheers, and good luck in your quest

Originally posted by cahostnet
I also feel like you do, sites loading slow and not being able to find things etc. But I had to ask myself, is this all that important to me... Tech support is very important, customer service is very imporat...Who is to say that the provider wants to spend thousands to create a very nice page

hey ben

although i mostle agree with you... unfortunately, as you've seen with Greg, image is important, and in the real business world (away from the web) it is even more important...

to me (probably because i do freelance design work occasionally) i really think it is important that a legitimate business have a decently designed page... i've seen businesses with crappy little pages and i truly believe they lower the reputation of the company, as it shows they don't understand the medium they've chosen to use.

and while tech support is important, it's bad practice to assume your customers will try to find every little bit of info about your company... i think a lot of people do as Greg does, i know i do... if it takes too long to load, it's out, if it looks like a 12 year old made it (with apologies to the 12 year old whiz kid designers i've seen... wow...) it's out,etc... that's the basics of it... they're tech support may be great, and i may be missing out on an opportunity, but more importantly, they're missing out on business...

and hey, good effective design work will pay itself off... and if you've done your research, like any form of advertising, it will bring it way more business than it cost...

Some of the worst designed sites are hosting sites. Let's not even TALK about ISP sites.

However, with the exception of horrible, Geo Cities style design, I don't care about bells and whistles and pretty design so much as fast loading and content that's complete and easy to get to.

Greg, I completely agree that there's not excuse for a hosting site to make you go 2 levels deep to find their prices. No, they probably shouldn't be on the home page, but it's REAL easy to put a button like "Plans" on the home page, taking you instantly to their pricing plans.

I don't look for gorgeous design on hosting sites, frankly. I look for decent, easy to navigate design, with plenty of content. And yes, if it takes forever to load, I'll go on to the next choice.

To repeat what others have said, in this thread and many others, support is the most important thing you should look for, once you determine the host offers what you need, at a reasonable price. You may never need that support, but if the day comes that you do, it makes ALL the difference.

Unfortunately, support is something you need to research yourself. Most hosting companies tout their own dedication to supporting their companies. Many fall flat on the execution. The idea is to find out BEFORE you sign up. How?

- As someone said, email them with questions. No site will answer all your questons.

- Does the site have an easy to reach contact page, with a phone number, email address, and physical address?

- Does the site have a support web board? That's not a real need, and I don't think the lack of one should be a factor in rejecting a host, but it's a big plus. If they do, and they allow guests to read posts, take a look around and see what problems people are having, and what the answers are.

Good luck, and happy holidays to all!

I am a, I agree with you. I didn't mean to say that image is not important, it is and Greg will agree with me! What I'm saying is that people put too much into that. A great designed page could come with terrible service. I think people should go beyound that. That's really my point. As everything else if your image stinks, people won't even go any further. In short, you're right, image is important but people need to learn not to make that their only evaluation point.

cahostnet,

I agree that service is a major criteria, and I did not base my criteria on design. They were observations more than anything. But, I did eliminate hosts if I could not get to their plans or prices easily and quickly, or if the site was too slow in coming up. And the best service in the world won't do me any good if they don't give me the features I need. I think it's ironic that many of those that specialize in hosting quality web sites could have such not-good designs. For what it's worth, I do like your design, particularly the program comparison page.

I have to evaluate the hosts I'm narrowed to before going on. I'm not in a big hurry, I'm quite happy with my current host (http://linuxwebhost.com), I'm just not getting enough transfer.

Thanks to all for your feedback. Once again, this place is great, and there is obviously a ton of knowledge here to draw on. Thanks to all for sharing it!

Greg

ben...

yes you're completely right... :) i think we were arguing different angles of the same deal... my mistake for misunderstanding... :)