Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Web Hosting : Which host to choose?

[Chris Green]

Okay, I've narrowed it to A-1 hosting and Telaweb because they have the most bang for the buck in the under $10, 50MB+ range.
I need custome-cgi and the option to grow into something larger without penalty. I'd like mySQL, and kind of like the idea of having a supplied control panel but could build my own. Telaweb is currently offering this deal now where they'll give you two years for the price of one, but they've just been bought by another company, and I here service is suffering. Actually, I've tried calling to get answers to my questions, but no-one there seems to have answers. I'd like any feed back about these hosts from those who've been customers and even from the hosts themselves. True, I've not tried to contact A-1 because their answers seem well documented on their site and it agrees with what's posted here.
Also, I'd also like to have two or more domain names in different folders on the same site, i.e. www.mydomain.com, www.myseconddomain.org, etc.
Comments, suggestions and feedback from clients of these hosts and the hosts themselves are greatly appreciated!

Regards,

Chris

[marksy]

If you are paying less that $15 a month expect poor service or slow machines. It never ceases to amaze me how often people pay $10 then complain becuase their questions weren't answered by support or the machine is down. There is a good reason Verio and Interland, two of the largest hosts, charge $20+...A host of any signicant size can't be run for $10 a site. So if you don;t mind slow tech support and a possibly slow site, then either one...if you expect to run a business web site, look elsewhere. If I lose even one sale because my site is down it costs me at least $50, which I could have spent paying a nicer host.

[Chris Green]

Marksy, thanks for your reply. Point taken. However, this is my budget! I kind of got used to figuring things out for myself on a free site. Right now, I'm more interested in a site that is reliable and doesn't have those annoying huge banners floating over my page with every new link. I guess I thought free pages were generally slower than anything I could pay for. Is that not the case?

That statement that $10.00 host are not reliable is not right, the majority of them may be that way but not all of them. I offer full packages for $13.00/month that includes all of the goodies,( Control Panel on the Alabanza Network, free SSL, mySQL and much much more) and the support that clients deserve. Go here http://www.hostsearch.com/showcommen...Companycode=57 and you will see some very happy customers that are paying a very fair price for their services, and receiving the best support that many of them have ever received. So your statement is very wrong and my reviews prove it. I am not getting rich but I am providing a very good service at a fair price and my clients love it and I have more signing up every day.

Thank You
JRC Systems http://jrc-hosting.com
1-877-429-8867

[marksy]

No, sometimes free servers can be faster...A low budget host will pack as many domains on a server as possible and most likely have little knowledge of balancing traffic or how to handle bursting. Those who guarantee unlimited traffic tend to fall into this area. I do understand budgetary constraints, I just wanted to make sure you as well as others consider some of those issues. The difference between a $10 and $19 host can be very significant, and is really only $108 a year..not that much in the grand scale of things.


Dave,
I'm sure you do have a good service, and Alabanza is a great way to go, we have 3 servers with them. I did say a host of size...I imagine you can serve a small number of sites very effectively and I take nothing away from that. But you need to continue to get more sites to survive and as you do your response time and service will suffer...it's a fact of life we all live with. Alabanza's stuff, as nice as it is, has some bugs, and you will have problems. Without a dedicated staff (whoch cost's some $$) you simply can't provide service to a large # of customers. We have 2000+ domains and need a pretty big staff to support them adequately.

Just a host being honest - if I sell a domain for $8 or $9, am I really gonna spend the time to dig into a problem if I'll only lose $90-$100 if that domain leaves? Probably not - anyone who tells you otherwise is lying or has so few sites they don't realize the value of their time. We charge at a level that allows people to expect a certain level of service. All hosts that expect to be successful will do the same. Ok, throw me the heat for this but sooner or later every host makes business decisions based on economics.

Chris
KBS Web Hosting http://www.netfronts.com

[This message has been edited by marksy (edited 05-14-2000).]

I am probably the one that got this board off subject, but it really pisses me off when some loud mouth no it all can tell people how I run my business. He has no idea what he is talking about, and I have learned that people who enjoy putting other people down do it to make them selves look better. I went to this clowns page and he also has $10.00 plans so I have no idea what he is talking about, people in glass houses should not throw stones. So I am sorry for getting this off subject it is just hard for me to stay silent when some blow hard is putting companies like mine down to make them selves look better. They should rely on their own merit, but some can no do that I guess or they have no merit of there own. I also found a bit odd that he sent me a email but refused to respond to any of the questions that I sent him. Well that is my 2 cents worth I am done, sorry for messing up your post.

[Chris Green]

Thanks everyone for your replies. They've been good advice. However, I'd like to try to bring things back on track. Given the constraints of my budget, the parameters I'm interested in, and knowing the hosts, whom would you pick? Or, are their any hosts out there within these parameters who are known to be reliable?

[Chris Green]

Actually, I've sent a couple of questions to both hosts in which I'm interested, and neither replied. That's pretty pathetic. I guess I'm better off for now staying with a free host. Prohosting is what I've been using. They used to have bannerless free space. I can understand the need to introduce banners to defray costs, but they're still getting the kinks out of it. The banners are too large. It takes up a third of my screen. On top of that, if you have cgi's, not only do you get a banner in each frame, you get a pop-up window ad as well. It's extremely frustrating. They _are_ a great host. I don't have any visitors to speak of at my site yet. It's not really ready anyway. But just testing out the pages is frustrating. Every click yields a banner _and_ a pop-up ad. I really enjoy figuring out new ways of displaying stuff in javascript, cgi and html.
I think I'll ask if they can provide a service similar to what geocities used to have where you can have a space without ads for a small fee. I didn't mean to stir up rivalries in the hosting ranks. Actually I find it encouraging to know someone who hosts out there is listening.

Regards,

Chris

[marksy]

We didn't receive any e-mail from you. If you have taken anything here personally then you need to rethink the web hosting business. You obviously run on emotions rather than a sound business plan. Like it or not, one-man shops don't give adequate service to a majority of people. 'Blow Hard'? If telling people the truth is your definition then I guess I'm guilty. Any argument you can logically formulate could be shot down...emotional outbursts aren't too impressive to me.

[Chris Green]

Administrator:

Please close this conversation. It has become very confusing, and sadly, I'm not
getting answers in this venue.

Please just end it.

Regards,

Chris

[Félix C.Courtemanche]

Maybe a final note... perhapse you should take a look around a little bit more, compare prices, send invoices, ask questions.

I don't beleive that the price has anything to do with the quality of the services (unless it is way too cheap) because in general, a single client wont pay the web hosting company. But thousands of satisfied customers will.

Oh, a little pub here... take a look at our services too, so you can compare! http://services.can-host.com/?url=hosting

If you have any questions or need help concerning any other issues, feel free to e-mail me.


------------------
[Félix C.Courtemanche | Web Designer]
[Head Designer | Co-Admin]
[webmaster@can-host.com]
[Can-Host Networks | http://can-host.com ]

I have used addr.com. Their service is great and the uptime reliable, but their support leaves something to be desired. It usally takes 3 days to get any response to a question. It has been over 4 weeks and 20 e-mails trying to get help with a MySQL database that was not setup correctly. I have also found their control panel to be all but useless. Perhaps, there is a good cheap host around that responds to e-mails, but I have not found it yet.

[Félix C.Courtemanche]

DELETED

[This message has been edited by Gordon (edited 05-17-2000).]