Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Web Hosting : Windows Hosting : Hosting Site Question

[bucrepus]

I have looked far and wide for a hosting company that supports ASP.NET as well has SQL server (and that allows remote connections via MS Enterprise Man). I have used Godaddy for years, but trying to access a SQL or MySQL db for development is complicated and pathetic. I have looked at many new Hosting CO's, including m6,1and1,ixwebhosting,************,hostmonster,bluehost, and others mentioned here; but All I can find is dozens of reviews, mostly bad and very few good, on about ANY company that I google for except the ($20+) monthly ones. I have found a site called reliablesite.net, that interests me. (I am non profit org paying out of my pocket). I have seen good reviews but a couple that are very 'bad' for me, such as no sites hosted on this provider, no phone number or where the company is at. Any insights on the provider. I am needing an ASP.NET / SQL provider (low volume traffic). (I found a reliable ? discountasp.net but there price w/SQL is too high..) , so am looking at reliablesite.net. Just tired of looking at dozens of bad reviews on about any site I google for...
Thanks a bunch!

[Illustrious]

It seems you are searching in the wrong place. The hosts you've listed are largely corporate conglomerates specializing in one-size-fits-all plans.

Look for Windows hosting if you really want ASP.NET. As for Discountasp.net being "too pricey," I don't see anything wrong with $10 a month for 1GB/80GB bandwidth, especially given that it's a windows platform.

Someone has to pay for that bandwidth and disk space.

[bucrepus]

I thought there was an additional $10 monthly charge for SQL at discountasp..

[Illustrious]

Originally Posted by bucrepus

I thought there was an additional $10 monthly charge for SQL at discountasp..

Seems like it. It looks like they have a database server that you have to pay to use. Interesting price setup.

[Softsys Hosting]

You will always find some catches in the prices advertised... hence, it is very much necessary that you do a good research before putting your hands on one company..

Good luck!

[RSNET-John]

Let me know if you have any questions regarding ReliableSite. I can provide you many sites that we host, and we have a very good reputation both on this forum and all over the web.

[bucrepus]

Signed up with them. Had a few questions, fast response. So far so good.. I will have to see..
Thnaks all

[lizon]

I frequent this form and asp.net's forums and both places seem to recomend very decent places, and a lot of times are hosts that I use. It is funny that the discount asp.net host is too expensive, kind of defeats the purpose of the name huh? I use DASP for a couple sites and dont have any issues most of the time. Support is professional over email and their forums.

Do you have specific requirements that you can share with us to assist you in finding the right host?

Disk Space?
SQL space?
Bandwidth?
ASP.NET version?

[CyberHostPro]

Hi

not all hosting companies allow you to remotely connect to SQL, however some hosting companies may offer:

Enterprise manager connection via a custom port
or a online enterprise manager such as MyLittleAdmin

or even better, offer you both.

When looking for a hosting company, check with the company if these features are included with your SQL database.

[dasp]

Full Disclosure: I work for DiscountASP.NET

We've heard people talk about us and how our "Discount" name doesn't jive with our pricing. So let me address this.

DiscountASP.NET is not trying to be the cheapest host out there. We are trying to provide the best value in cutting edge windows hosting. And really our name is appropriate as we are a low priced leader in enterprise-class ASP.NET shared hosting.

Users need to do their due diligence when researching hosts and what I'm talking about is not just doing a simplistic feature/cost comparison. You'll always find someone cheaper or someone promising more features. New hosts will look at the competitive landscape and price themselves cheaper than anyone else. Even established hosts who may try to make fun of our "Discount" name are launching cheap sub-$3/mo hosting plans. But the bottomeline is that "cheaper" doesn't mean "better".

The way users should do their research is to understand how a hosting provider is staying in business while providing their service at their price point. The cheaper the plan, the more tradeoffs. So you have to figure out what you are willing to spend and what tradeoffs you are willing to take. Simply put, if a host is offering cheaper plans, they have to cut their operational expenses in order to stay in business.

So for example, something that comes up often in the forum, we do offer SQL as an addon to the base hosting plan, and we are aware that other hosts may include SQL for free. Our pricing is not a "catch". We offer SQL as an addon so we can provide the high level SQL hosting service that we currently do and have a reputation for.

Is it possible for DiscountASP.NET to include SQL in their base plan - of course it is possible, but our owners have made a business decision that we do not want to make the tradeoffs associated with this type of offering.

What kind of operational costs would we need to cut for a free sQL offering? If everything is on the table then the first thing we'd do is downgrade the SQL version that we use from SQL Standard version to the Workgroup Edition and save about 5x in SPLA licensing costs and give up scalability. We would load the SQL servers with more databases even though performance would suffer. We may consider hosting the SQL database on the same box as websites to save on buying extra servers. We would consider using cheaper servers and just take a chance with no support contract. We would fire our Microsoft Certified DBAs and save on salary. We would stop doing R&D work on new SQL tools and stop working with Micrsoft on new SQL technology.

Our business manager's have gone through this exercise already and they've made a business decision that we will continue our pricing schedule as is and not make those tradeoffs listed above. Our business focus is to continue to innovate and innovation costs money.

DiscountASP.NET is not the right host for every website needing windows hosting. We never claim to be. Users who our looking for hosting have to make up their own mind as to what their budgets are and what tradeoffs they are willing to take on.