When I moved to a dedicated server in the UK, I needed managed hosting according to a few criteria, and Clook (http://www.clook.co.uk/) came out as the best of my options.

I already had experience of them with a reseller account, and trust, not price, was the purchasing decision here.

It hasn't proven me wrong in the slightest, even though I could probably have bought a cheaper server elsewhere.

Demonstrated again this week, after I'd bought another forum and needed to merge them together to create a Big Board (http://www.big-boards.com/).

Anyway, there were various technical problems, not least because of using a very old database that the other forum ran on - I had to repeatedly contact Clook for support, and the replies were always returned within minutes, no matter what time I contacted them.

What was especially good is that they'd reply to a ticket to inform me they were on the case, as well as when resolved, rather than let me stew without knowing.

Overall, Clook do a great job with managed dedicated hosting (http://www.clook.co.uk/services/servers.php), and I don't have any reservations at all in recommending them to anyone else, especially those looking for UK servers - managed, or otherwise.

What a difference compared to the shared hosting forum - a complete absense of dozens of posts thanking me for my review.

I guess not many hosts here offer managed services. :D

I guess not many hosts here offer managed services. :D

Think the problem is rather, "Not many people on WHT want to spend more on hosting than they would on a couple of drinks at Starbucks".

Hi Brian,

I can tell you I do read reviews, but not all the times I drop a message to say "hey, thanks". And I really appreciate yours.

In this case, I believe most potential customers keep away because of this message from Clook's web site:

At this time we are out of stock on UK based dedicated servers and unable to accept new orders for this service. We expect this to be resolved by mid May 2006

;)