Hi everybody. I'm totally new to the forum, so excuse me if i'm not using the proper etiquette.

I'm looking for a new web hosting provider. I'm based in the uk and host about a dozen commercial websites. Some of them are very basic in that they are abou 10 asp pages, not linked to a database or downloads, just text, formatting and a few images. A few are a bit more advanced, with a few hundred asp pages, all running off an MS SQL 2000 database, with downloads and images. One website runs a basic Snitz asp/MS access based forum for a small community of 30 users.

Our main business however involves passing on files to clients. Files are usually in the form of zip files and can be anything between 5mb and 50mb in size, about 12 files a day being downloaded. Long terms sorage is not necessary on the web hosting service, they're deleted from the ftp accounts or password protected folders after about two weeks. Clients are based all over the world, so not fussed where the servers are based.

We used to be with xSession in the uk. They were really good, VERY little downtime, but when we did have problems (or simply wanted to create an ftp account) they took a while to deal with them. We were paying £500 a year for hosting with them, so i looked around. I then made the worst decision of my life and migrated our services to ************. We've had performance issues from day one, they migrated us to a different server, and now our clients get timeouts when downloading even the smallest of zip files! Support take days to get back to you about anything, and nothing seems to get resolved.


Anyway, i want a web hosting provider who is reliable in terms of performance, has support during uk working hours at the very least (so if it's a US hosting company then they would probably need to have 24/7 support). I don't mind paying for a good provider (let's say up to $70-80 per month - but they have to be worth it). I've thought about dedicated or VPS but i really haven't got the time or knowledge to manage server.

I've looked into windows web hosting (has to be windows) and reseller accounts and the best i could find was the £15.99/month fasthosts web hosgin account, but that only allows me one domain, i'd like the ability to host multiple domains (each with it's own database).

Here are a few specs that i've found that we need as a minimum:
8gb disk space
20gb data transfer
3 (probably growing to 5) small MS SQL 2000 (not 2005) databases
Direct access to databases via Enterprise Manager
MS access databases
Ability to setup multiple domains to multiple sites
ISAPI rewrite (or similar) would be really useful too.
100 ftp accounts
50 e-mail addresses per domain (i really liked the 1 Microsoft Exchange e-mail address that comes with the fasthosts package) - must have spam and virus filtering in place

Maybe i should open up fasthost accounts at different levels for the websites? Could be costly, but if it works and is reliable then i'll think about it. Can i point multiple domains to the one website hosting account though? I'm not even sure if i can access my MS SQL 2000 database via enterprise manager with fasthosts. Their reseller account might be an option, but i have to pay for each MSSQL database.

Any recommendations would really be appreciated, even a point in the right direction as to what i should be looking for.

Thanks

What kind of support do you think you would need. Changing passwords and small housekeeping items is something you could do on your own control panel. I am surprised that your previous providers did not offer this.

Welcome to WHT :)

Well most of the Windows Hosting provider will fulfil requirements. Just search this forum and short list a few than search for the reviews about them using Search link or Google. Mail them with some FAQs to see the how long they take to reply and how good they are when replying.

Wish you the Best of luck :)

Has anybody got any experience with Rebel Networks? Their packages seem to be pretty tempting.

I've not heard anything about them. I've checked their packages and they have mentioned Transfer and Bandwidth as two different features.:confused:

I asked them about this and they said that one was the data transfer, the other was the speed at which the server is connected to the internet.

I use aplus.net and have had no problems.

<<snipped>>

mistac, I would take contactsonia's advice on researching them. But Here is a list of Windows host's that to the best of my knowledge can do this and be reliable you would just need to pick which one is best for you.

Aplus.net
ActiveHost.com
Alpshost.com
gate.com
winwebhosting.com

Just to name a few. But you should probably send off questions to each host you have in mind see how fast and reliable they answer them.

regards,
Blue316

Blue316> Thanks for the list, it was difficult for me to find a list of windows hosting providers when i was looking on the forum, so hopefully your list well help people in a similar position.

In the end i signed up to CyberHostPro.com on a reseller package, and i can really recommend them. Their first level customer support (24/7 live chat service) is fantastic and most of the time you don't need to go further than that. The members of the forum that we migrated over to the servers have all been really impressed with the speed of the site compared to previous hosting companies (I went for a uk server with CHP which is a bit moer expensive). Everything's really simple and easy via the control panel (Helm - which i've never used before but support was there to help me figure it out).

Hello mistac,

Cool beans and thanks for the information. Please let us know in a month or two how things are going.

Best wishes.