I stuck a note on the end of a previous topic, but I'm curious about this problem.... I've been told by ixhosting tech support, VERY much contrary to what I was told by ixhosting sales when I signed up, that "It is NOT possible to get "decent" performance for php from a Windows host. We can move your account to a different server, but you'll still experience extremely poor performance with ANYTHING that contains any PHP code."

SO, IS it possible to get really good performance on a Windows host? Now by "really good", I'm not demanding sub-second first-page display, but it should rarely if ever take more than 5 seconds to get the first page up and visible. CURRENTLY, with ixhosting, I frequently get page loads in the multiple MINUTES, and often they don't load at all.

I've gone through the hoops with them for several months, gotten a wide variety of stories (some of which were patently untrue), lots of excuses, and they've now concluded that they simply will not make their Windows systems run php decently.

SO, is it possible? And from WHICH shared hosting provider? I'm paying about $10/month for poor service, so I need to find someone SIGNIFICANTLY better....

BTW: I've looked at every entry in here all the way back to January where people are looking for Windows hosts. I see a LOT of questions, and the standard response of "what's your budget", but VERY few real-world recommendations. My budget is here, I'd like real-world recommendations for Windows hosts that are US based, have US support, and actually WORK.

DMEHosting.com provides windows hosting. They are smart and I use them. Have for about 2 months. You should contact sales/support and ask them about your PHP question!

Well, they certainly LOOK interesting... Their "Live Chat" is offline, and their "Contact Us" doesn't list an 800 number...

Anybody got a really good web host that's interested enough to provide a toll-free number?

Hi

Personally if PHP is slow on windows its bad server configuration. All your host has to do is configure PHP to use FastCGI and its just as fast as it is on linux and don't let anyone tell you otherwise!

Cool... BUT, since IX Hosting CLEARLY has no intention of doing what's necessary to configure their Windows servers to run PHP decently, I still need a GOOD replacement...

'Cause if it's really this simple and obvious to get Windows servers to run php decently, these people are too stupid to waste any more time on......

I'd agree with Chris - FastCGI makes a tremendous amount of difference in performance and you can probably just look out for Windows Hosts who run PHP under FastCGI for decent performance.

See previous reply. I don't need agreement that FastCGI can help, I NEED A REPLACEMENT WEB HOST........

Thanks for the pointers... Apparently, this "find a host" thing is going to be harder than I thought...

I looked at both exabytes and jodohost, and it looks like they've both got serious shortcomings for a photo site...

Please keep the recommendations coming (I figure with the number of significant users in here there must be some very good US-based, high performance, reasonably priced hosts out there).

Hm... Updated the trouble ticket at IX Hosting with the data on FastCGI from here the other day... Got a reply... According to them, they're USING FastCGI and since PHP was created for Linux, it doesn't run well on Windows.... So, clearly, SOMEBODY is full of "effluvium"... Fortunately, this one I can test...

Once I get that GREAT host from someone in here, I can ftp my website up in about 30 minutes, fire it up, and it'll either display very fast or not.

I DO have a question though. Other than pushing the page from the server to the client, is there some significant difference in how the web host's server does the php, javascript and/or html processing versus how MY windows system does? 'Cause I consistently get the first page up in around 5 seconds locally, as opposed to anywhere from 30 seconds to 3 (or more) MINUTES from the host...

I DO have a question though. Other than pushing the page from the server to the client, is there some significant difference in how the web host's server does the php, javascript and/or html processing versus how MY windows system does? 'Cause I consistently get the first page up in around 5 seconds locally, as opposed to anywhere from 30 seconds to 3 (or more) MINUTES from the host...

When you load your site locally of course it's going to be fast. Actually, a 5 second local loading time is SLOW. It should be next to instant. You might want to look at what script you are using as that may be the problem.

As far as your host is concerned, have you tried pinging them or doing a traceroute? It might be a connection issue that is beyond the hosts control. You should do a ping and if it shows lag, do a trace and see where the lag happens.

Don't forget there IS a difference between your local install and a webhost. Your local is just loading from your disk, no dns resolving, no vast network of switches, no potential downed network lines, etc.

I see a LOT of questions, and the standard response of "what's your budget", but VERY few real-world recommendations. My budget is here, I'd like real-world recommendations for Windows hosts that are US based, have US support, and actually WORK.

That is because the real users who are happy with their host won't have time to hang around WHT to write recommendation.
They should be busy running their business.
PHP FastCGI should be standard configuration of all windows hosts.
However i still recommend running php script on a linux hosting account. :D

Do you need ASP/ASP.Net or MSSQL? if not, then why are you looking for a windows host?

That is because the real users who are happy with their host won't have time to hang around WHT to write recommendation.
They should be busy running their business.
PHP FastCGI should be standard configuration of all windows hosts.
However i still recommend running php script on a linux hosting account. :D
Yah, good luck finding recoimmendations on a forum where 95% of users are:

1) Web Hosts
2) Disgruntled web hosting customers. :)

By the way, FastCGI can be extremely problematic on Windows. It was broken on Plesk and we fixed it for Paralells. :D

By the way, FastCGI can be extremely problematic on Windows. It was broken on Plesk and we fixed it for Paralells. :D

It appears that the issue you faced was that with Plesk and not "FastCGI on Windows". We have been using this for a long time now without any issues and it is has been extremely stable & fast (FWIW, we use DotNetPanel).

Part of the problem on not getting any recommendations is that you're primarily dealing with a lot of HOSTERS so far and not a lot of USERS. Since self-promotion is banned here, you're not going to see a lot of replies in "use this host" unless it's coming from a user.

I'll try to help you... I would consider the following hosts in your budget:

DiscountASP.net
Softsys
CrystalTech

There are definitely others, but that would be my short list I can immediately think of at your budget.

Make sure to get a plan on Windows 2008! PHP on Windows is greatly improved and on par with Apache when used on 2008 with the native FastCGI module. Ask if they additionally support the WinCache module.

Good luck -

Do you need ASP/ASP.Net or MSSQL? if not, then why are you looking for a windows host?

As I said in the original note - TODAY I'm writing PHP. Tomorrow I may have to write Visual Basic or VWD or something else. By having a Windows setup where I can find a good performing host, I can work in whatever the people writing the checks need...

Thanks AI-Wayne, I'll check those out... I just didn't figure it was gonna be this difficult.

Why do you want to use windows?

What you need is a FastCGI windows host w/PHP & XCache, without those 3 you'll have crap performance.

>What you need is a FastCGI windows host w/PHP & XCache, without those 3 you'll have crap performance.

Excellent...... And then NAMES OF A COUPLE PROVIDERS THAT HAVE THOSE THINGS WOULD BE?

What you need is a FastCGI windows host w/PHP & XCache, without those 3 you'll have crap performance.
We don't use XCache but we still have good performace when hosting php scripts.
Slow php loading could be because server does not have enough Ram.

OK, I give up on the Windows Hosting idea.... I've been too busy for the last month to chase hosts, and I only got 3 pointers in here, despite begging and pleading for people to give me the names of hosts that actually run well and fit a reasonable budget.....

DiscountASP - doesn't even have a phone number available
Softsys - not a lot of info and digging only provides a 303 phone number
Crystaltech - at least they've got the funds to provide a phone number. Unfortunately, for a lousy 3GB of disk space they want 27 DOLLARS A MONTH......

SO, I may as well go back to Bluehost. They weren't great but they answered the phone and usually fixed the problem....

IX Hosting finished things off today when I sent in a ticket to get super privilege WITHIN THE MYSQL DATABASE so I could create triggers - and got the response "we don't support triggers because we'd have to give our users super".......

OH...... It's definitely time to move on.

You wont be able to create triggers with Bluehost either nor with any other host using cpanel.

Well, since the Windows host I'm on CLEARLY isn't going to get any better, I'm may as well go find a simple, cheap Unix host. Especially if EVERYBODY figures their users are too dumb to actually use database constructs.....

And, if I have to write Windows code, I'll just have to use the client's windows host...

OK, I give up on the Windows Hosting idea.... I've been too busy for the last month to chase hosts, and I only got 3 pointers in here, despite begging and pleading for people to give me the names of hosts that actually run well and fit a reasonable budget.....

DiscountASP - doesn't even have a phone number available

SO, I may as well go back to Bluehost. They weren't great but they answered the phone and usually fixed the problem....

IX Hosting finished things off today when I sent in a ticket to get super privilege WITHIN THE MYSQL DATABASE so I could create triggers - and got the response "we don't support triggers because we'd have to give our users super".......

OH...... It's definitely time to move on.

Did you try emailing us? We offer 24/7 sales/tech support staff. We successfully host over 30,000 customers with email only support and have won numerous ASP.NET hosting awards. However, if you absolutely want phone suppport, then I suggest you find a host that offers phone support, but keep in mind, phone support isn't mandatory.

if you absolutely want phone suppport, then I suggest you find a host that offers phone support, but keep in mind, phone support isn't mandatory.

I heartily agree.

I would also add, expect to pay extra for phone support as well. With a budget of $10/mo don't expect many hosts (particularly Windows based which adds a premium to the price in and of itself) to offer free phone support and be very good hosters at the same time.

Of course, with a good web host you don't really need phone support since there are no problems in the first place :)


I have to write code


You're a programmer yet you need phone support from your web host to provide you with instant hand-holding :think:


Did you try emailing us?


Apparently not :rolleyes:

Did you try emailing us? We offer 24/7 sales/tech support staff. We successfully host over 30,000 customers with email only support and have won numerous ASP.NET hosting awards. However, if you absolutely want phone suppport, then I suggest you find a host that offers phone support, but keep in mind, phone support isn't mandatory.

I agree with this. Phone support isn't a good parameter to measure a quality of hosting company.

You should try to check technical skills of a hosting company, their problem solving capabilities and fast turn around time to your tickets.

If a you're almost immediately reciving response to your trouble tickets, phone support is not at all required.

I have used Directhost and have hosted some games, but at sometimes they can be a nuisance.

I stuck a note on the end of a previous topic, but I'm curious about this problem.... I've been told by ixhosting tech support, VERY much contrary to what I was told by ixhosting sales when I signed up, that "It is NOT possible to get "decent" performance for php from a Windows host. We can move your account to a different server, but you'll still experience extremely poor performance with ANYTHING that contains any PHP code."

SO, IS it possible to get really good performance on a Windows host? Now by "really good", I'm not demanding sub-second first-page display, but it should rarely if ever take more than 5 seconds to get the first page up and visible. CURRENTLY, with ixhosting, I frequently get page loads in the multiple MINUTES, and often they don't load at all.

I've gone through the hoops with them for several months, gotten a wide variety of stories (some of which were patently untrue), lots of excuses, and they've now concluded that they simply will not make their Windows systems run php decently.

SO, is it possible? And from WHICH shared hosting provider? I'm paying about $10/month for poor service, so I need to find someone SIGNIFICANTLY better....

BTW: I've looked at every entry in here all the way back to January where people are looking for Windows hosts. I see a LOT of questions, and the standard response of "what's your budget", but VERY few real-world recommendations. My budget is here, I'd like real-world recommendations for Windows hosts that are US based, have US support, and actually WORK.

the problem i was meet the same.how it can be solved!