Hello,
My company's site is hosted at interland. A year ago, we purchased a secure sign through them and they were supposed to set up the whole thing for us. However, the secure sever is still not up. We tried to contact their tech support but couldn't find their contact email beside the "support ticket" system that they have. We submitted a ticket about one or two months ago and the ticket is still open. Overall, we have a really bad experience with interland and the threw $400 dollars away for the secure sign....

A while ago, their server went down and we lost a lot of business that way. We contacted their sales and complained to them that we wanted they to be liable for the sales that we lost. However, their response was that they would give us "two weeks" of hosting for free. It was such a joke because we lost "a lot more" business than two weeks of hosting fee.

Anyway, we are thinking about hosting our own site or find another big and reliable company to host our site.

1) Any one know if DSL for business will be a good choice? The last time i check it, the price was about $600.

2) Would anyone be kind to suggest some big and reliable hosting companies? Big in a sense like AT&T or Dell....


------------------------------------------------------------------
Sincerely,
Yutung Liu
Directory of Innovation
CGI-Factory.com of SiliconSoup.com LLC

I have five sites with Interland, each time it is getting worse. But thanks to WHT I have seen the light .:D :D Do not talk to the new sales accountant, they are for sales only. You can get support on the phone. If the first person does not know the answer, there is the big cheese in private office who does.:homer: the ticket support is a slow way to H_L L The past history of support tickets can be usefull on an old style problem. I think Interland has some good systems and my sites are small, but they are moving as soon as contract is up.

I noticed you are after recommendations for some 'big' hosting companies. Just thought I'd make a comment that big isn't always best. There are many reliable, small-medium size hosting companies that can no doubt do as good a job, if not better than the big boys.

Just my 2 cents...

If you have learned already Interland being a public hosting company is bad, then go small.

I would recommend outsourcing web hosting, it cheaper.

If you need some fiber and or a T-1 line cheapest price on the market is around 850$

I would recommend consulting the board for quality hosting companies. There are some good ones here.


Let me know your thoughts.

Joe

Originally posted by Yutliu Hello,
Anyway, we are thinking about hosting our own site or find another big and reliable company to host our site.

1) Any one know if DSL for business will be a good choice? The last time i check it, the price was about $600.
Yes, It's not a good choice for hosting, (it is good for access). You can find reasons why on my site.

2) Would anyone be kind to suggest some big and reliable hosting companies? Big in a sense like AT&T or Dell....
I'll be kind and point out that many large companies are not reliable. You mentioned Dell. Dellhost outsources to Interliant and does not enjoy a reputation even close to that of their core computer business. Dellhost/Interliant has a lot of support problems and is often unresponsive.

You'll find that to be true of many large companies. You might want to remember the adage that less is more and think smaller.

The only concern I have about smaller hosting compaines is that what if they go out of business one day.



_____________________________________
Sincerely,
Yutung Liu
Directory of Innovation
CGI-Factory.com of SiliconSoup.com LLC

The only concern I have about smaller hosting compaines is that what if they go out of business one day.

It is wise to be cautious. However, even the 'big' guys go out of business, merge and forget their existing customer base, or worse, become affiliated with a company with too many hands in too many pots.

Sometimes smaller is better, and more reliable/knowledgeable. Do your homework and you will find a host that suits you well. There are a ton of resources available.

Keep us posted on your findings and good luck.

are there some kind of reliable web hosting guides available somewhere?




_____________________________________
Sincerely,
Yutung Liu
Directory of Innovation
CGI-Factory.com of SiliconSoup.com LLC:

Originally posted by Yutliu
are there some kind of reliable web hosting guides available somewhere?
Web Hosting Talk is about as reliable as it gets. The problem with a lot of the hosting directories is that they're supported by advertising, so it's hard to tell what's an impartial recommendation and what's being "pushed" to make a buck. The other problem is that the user feedback on many of the directories can't always be trusted, as unscrupulous hosting providers will sometimes leave bogus feedback for themselves. Despite all that, it's still good to visit the hosting directories just to get an idea of what's available. The trick is to find a host that has the features you need, then research them thoroughly at places like this.

Yahoo! has a pretty good list of hosting directories (http://dir.yahoo.com/Business_and_Economy/Business_to_Business/Communications_and_Networking/Internet_and_World_Wide_Web/Network_Service_Providers/Hosting/Web_Site_Hosting/Directories/); that should get you started.

Originally posted by Yutliu
are there some kind of reliable web hosting guides available somewhere?
I've been monitoring the industry for some time and have guidelines posted on how to shop for a host, as well as an "avoid" list. See the last link in my signature.

Thanks for all the information! Do you guys have some hosting companies to recommand?


_____________________________________
Sincerely,
Yutung Liu
Directory of Innovation
CGI-Factory.com of SiliconSoup.com LLC

http://www.kdawebservices.com

Originally posted by Yutliu
Thanks for all the information! Do you guys have some hosting companies to recommand?
There's a huge thread on this board where hosts have listed their sites. Check it out at http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=3053

Because there are so many listed there, a good plan of action might be to see which hosts have posted here most often, read their posts and see if you like what they have to say (that's what I would do). Several that I would consider if I needed hosting are:
http://www.hostcaters.com
http://www.akashik.net
http://www.dtwebworks.com
http://www.www-hosting.net
http://www.weinbar.com

There are many others, but hopefully that will get you started.

Most larger hosting companies are still only good for dedicated services. Most of them outsource there shared services to smaller webhosting companies.

IMHO these are some of the best:
www.twilight-online.net
www.venturesonline.com
For a dedicated server I'm told Verio is very good.