After weeks of reading through mountains of reviews and opinions on dozens of Windows web hosts, I have narrowed my search down to the following :

FlareHosting.com
HostMySite.com
LFChosting.com
LNC-Hosting.com

Basically what I am looking for is :
1) Good support (2-3 hours max wait time)
2) Reliable connections and servers
3) Reasonable price (approx $20 for a standard package with 200Mb, 5Gb transfer, ASP, +/- 25 mail boxes, shared SSL, etc.)
4) Ability to take advantage of reseller packages in the future (not a current requirement, but one that must be available).

So what do you folks think? I just can't seem to make up my mind. Like everyone else, I don't want to be host-hopping for all eternity. I am leaning towards FlareHosting, but the others look good as well. HostMySite is a large company so they'll be around for a while.

Any opinions would be very welcome. Thanks!

Jenny

To be honest I haven't really heard of the other hosts you've mentioned (apart from hostmysite.com). Remember that a larger company has a larger client base to look after, so yes whilst they might be here for the long run, you're not going to be guaranteed great service.

Sometimes a smaller host that's upfront and honest about exactly what they have and what they can provide can be an ideal host in comparison with the multinational super-duper uber hosts :D

By the way have you checked out GearHost?

The Gold plan on their site might be of interest to you:

http://www.gearhost.com/services/hosting/shared/prices-features.asp

To be honest, GearHost is in the running, but there seems to be some concerns about them growing too fast. I haven't completely taken them off the radarscreen though. I guess every company goes through some growing pains. BTW, I agree with your comment that big is not always better, but there seems to be a lot of good feedback on HostMySite. FlareHosting doesn't get a lot of mention here, but they have very good feedback on Aspin.Com. LFCHosting has many good reviews, but admittedly a few bad ones as well. LNC-Hosting just seems like they have a good all-round package and I also had a live chat to someone there a few nights ago via their live support chat app which I really liked.

if you are looking for a small plan like you have suggested, i would choose hostmatters (www.hostingmatters.com)

i used to have an account with them and they offer great support and uptime. i only had to move because i wanted more space and bandwidth.

check out http://splashhost.com too. Alan is very good.

Fusion and Skelley1, thanks but the hosts you recommended both seem to be Unix hosts. I'm looking for Windows hosts.

and which of these windows 2000 reseller providers do you recommend?

gnxonline.com
donhost.co.uk
hosting4usa.com
triservers.com

Thanks

Hi
I highly recommand gearhost.com, I am had an account with them about 10 months ago and they are doing fine. they have fine support also and control panel.
For LNC-Hosting.com I have an account with them for less than a month and deal as resseller with them. they have got some problems with the network i think. i have faced lot of problem till now. They have great control panel too that gives you full control over your host but i do not reccommand them till the network problems are solved.
the others i did not use before .
good luck

Originally posted by CyberBabe
Fusion and Skelley1, thanks but the hosts you recommended both seem to be Unix hosts. I'm looking for Windows hosts.

sorry about that, i passed right over that part. *slaps back of hand*

Originally posted by threedee
gnxonline.com

No. They have a reputation as bad as cyberwings, and I know people that have had much trouble with them.

It's nice to get some more opinions on this thread. I decided to open a web hosting account with FlareHosting to test the waters. It's only been a few days but so far their support has been very good, usually less than 10 minutes between request and replies. I also get very good response times on the server. They have phone support but I haven't had to use that yet.

What appealed to me about them is that they have a nice balanced mix of everything. Not too cheap, not too expensive, not too big, not too small. They also offer a nice set of features without trying to support everything under the sun. I'm just not comfortable with a web host that installs every available piece of untested freeware they can find. They also have a good reseller plan.

The only negative is that they don't have a control panel, except for email and stats. So most things like folder permissions, log file compression, etc. is going to have to go through their support desk.

LFC Hosting (Loose Foot) gave me good service for two years - then suddenly they've tried to cheat me.

I closed my reseller account and kept just one client's domain with them. After several months of paying monthly, I sent them a check for a year's hosting. Weeks later, they charged that amount to the files that were never deleted on the accounts that I closed.

Since I had closed the accounts, of course I couldn't go and delete the files. In fact, since they did not have an automated method of going from reseller to single account - it was actually their own guy who closed my account (and didn't delete the files)!

I feel it is very unethical to back charge someone for closed accounts - especially taking money intended to pay for a client's hosting.

Their VP - Andrew G. MacCorquodale has lied and just generally been a real jerk about the whole deal.

So BEWARE of LFC Hosting.

- Hank Castello

Whoa, that was a five month old post! But thanks for the info.

you can find some good window hosts at www.aspin.com

I appreciate the tip, but their rates look steep. After dealing with hosting companies for nearly ten years, I finally found a good one - and have become a reseller for them - but alas, they don't do Windows.

I was once a staunch Windows/ASP guy myself, but PHP is SO much better, I'm glad I made the switch.

I think I'll just convert this site to PHP and host it myself.

Try out
livin4.com

they're cheap and they have a lot of support features. i'm not sure exactly about which support features they have but take a look

i don't believe php could be better than asp.net . php is just a script language which has lots of limit, whereas with asp.net now you can take advantage of some powerful languages such as: c++, vb.net, c#, j#, delphi....