I am looking for a new, reliable host. I came across best-machine (http://www.best-machine.com/)

Does anyone know anything about them?

Yeap, I like to know too.

It seems like they have th best features (no .NET yet) but some of my friends say they have the worse customer service. It takes from 4-5 days to hear from them once you need help. THis is suck.

I joined them over a month ago and so far I am a happy customer. Their support might not be very fast, but for me it is ok. I have never waited longer than a day or two for an answer. Mostly because there was a weekend in between. No problem with that.

Their own control panel works fine. You can handle domains, ftp, mail etc with it. Statistics are detailed.
The only thing I miss is a directory security component like Authentix or simular.
Password protected directories need to be setup by them and can have only one user/password. Generally, the value of features for the money is very good, I think.

They do support .net, but I have not used that yet.
I will post more experiences when I am with them longer.

Regards,
Ron

I'm interested in best-machine too as a Windows host that allows multiple domains and a generous amount of space for the money.

Might try them as a backup host for now in case something were ever to happen to my main host.

I e-mailed their tech support two separate pre-sales questions and both were answered in a little less than 10 hours (just got answered less than an hour ago actually).

Weird (but fortunately in a good way). I filled out some fields on one screen including my desired username and password, my name and address, and my credit card information and then the next screen asked for the username and password to actually log in as a member. That's the fastest signup and account activation I've ever seen.

That's the fastest signup and account activation I've ever seen.

They may have an automated system.

Don't waste your money. There are much better people out there. I would guess this is a one man show, as all you ever hear from is some guy named Johnny.

Their servers are down frequently, sometimes for hours at a time. They don't respond to emails, only support messages that you leave on their site. But their site is always down when your own is, which makes the top of your head so hot, your hair will start on fire.

Their support ( Johnny ) only makes excuses for their lack of uptime. Their SQL server doesn't work. They were down for 5 days following the SQL slammer attack, and their service has only marginally improved since. Over a 1 week span recently their uptime was 84.7%!!!!

They do not return phone calls and only have auto-attendant. Like I said, a one-man show.

I gave them over 2 months to get their act together and bailed last week to another ISP. I had to wait for 5 hours while their site was down to send a message to cancel my account!

Don't be baited by their features, as their support can't suck enough.


0 of 10.

I would guess this is a one man show, as all you ever hear from is some guy named Johnny.

I've also heard from Alex and James.

I haven't been tracking their uptime much as I've been using them now for a backup host, but so far my experience has been pretty good, and they seem fairly responsive.

I like how they let you have multiple domains (10 for $9.50/mo) and not just domain names pointing to the same root folder of the same site.

They assign a different port on a single IP to different sites.

You could check it now for yourself, but their site is down again. No surprise there!

still down :(

Perhaps uptime is improving?

I tracked a Best-Machine hosted site for a client each hour for the past 3 weeks and here are the results:

Week 1 - Up 87% of the time
Week 2 - Up 100% of the time
Week 3 - Up 100% of the time

And:
Week 4 - Up 99% of the time