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  1. #1

    Looking for professional host - willing to pay a little extra

    Let me give you some history first.

    Way back I was hosted with your-site.com. Jason was a great guy. Very knowledgable. Very professional. I was a newbie and didn't know what to expect. They were cheap. Everything worked flawlessly (of course, I didn't need much - just HTML - no MySQL or PHP or anything). Of course, as some of you may know, Jason died. Things fell apart. As a customer, I learned my first lesson: Be concerned about a company where one guy is owner and technical expert. Or did I learn this lesson?

    After waiting patiently I finally decided that I had to leave. I won't name my current host because while I'm thinking strongly about leaving them, I like the owner quite a bit. My issue is that while I like the owner, he's pretty much a one-man-show and, unlike Jason, he's not as technically adept as I need. He also has zero public customer support (i.e. - forums) (note that he's on IM often and gets back to emails fairly quick). What really concerned me, though, was that he recently did a major upgrade on the server that one of my sites is hosted with which resulted in my site being offline for half a day and unworkable (due to MySQL password being reset and another MySQL password file getting deleted) once it was back on-line. So, why did I go with them? Because they offered the features I wanted, had been in years for many years (a rarity), the owner was friendly and professional, and (here's the bottom line) they offered a dirt cheap reseller plan.

    Thanks to the economy (and my busy life, family, full-time day job) I haven't gotten my web design business going much over the past year, so this really didn't impact me much. But my concern is that this recent problem could be a major problem if I did have my business going the way I expect it to and even one of my customers couldn't accept these kinds of problems. So where does that leave me? I guess what I'm getting at is this...What are some of the "bigger" hosts out there that are trusted? I see time and time again (yes, while my post count is low, I do lurk), whenever someone asks for a great reseller the same names repeated. I've looked into several of them and been impressed but almost always realized that they were young (both in number of years in business and in age of the owner(s)) and small (1-3 guys behind the scenes). While more and more of them these days have support forums, I don't get the feeling that many/any of them have a real "big-business" mentality. Here's the gist of what I'm getting at: The web host behind Amazon wouldn't decide one day that they needed to upgrade some software, do it without telling Amazon well in advance, and then send an email the day of the event telling them that it might take up to 24 hours and that they might have to restore some data. But that seems to be the norm with these low-cost high-performance hosts. Yes, you get what you pay for. That's my point. I want to run a professional web design business and I guess I'm willing to pay a little more to work with a "professional" host. So, my question is, what are some of the less expensive, extremely professional, high quality web hosts out there?

    Scott

  2. #2
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    Just want to say a nicely written post.

    You've been lurking here long enough to know the good suppliers who frequent these boards. Voxtreme, Splashhost, mchost, resellershosting.net and others. You could also hunt through google under some specific keyword searches and see what turns up.

  3. #3
    Originally posted by Aussie Bob
    Just want to say a nicely written post.

    You've been lurking here long enough to know the good suppliers who frequent these boards. Voxtreme, Splashhost, mchost, resellershosting.net and others.
    First off, thanks for the super-fast reply (and compliment). Yes, I'm aware of those hosts and have looked into most of them (though I'll definitely double-check on all of them in case I've made an incorrect assumption somewhere). Again, no offense to any of them, but from what I've seen by many of the hosts I've looked into (including many of them), they're run by young folks (nothing wrong there in and of itself, I'm just 31 myself) but I'm concerned that the "big business" mentality may not be there.

    I want to stress that I can't blame them for their faults (or what I fear may be faults - not having used several of them personally). As a fairly young web designer/developer, I don't have it all figured out myself. Do I have a contingency plan for every possible thing that could go wrong? For that matter, do even the biggest, most expensive, most "professional" hosts have contingency plans for every possible scenario? Probably not. But my concern (from working with a couple of otherwise-great hosts) is that there's not much contingency for much of anything. Again, I'm not blaming them, per se. As I've said, price has been (and still is) a major factor for me. When I go with a host that charges $20/month for 1GB storage and 20GB of monthly transfer, what can I possible expect of them (I just threw those numbers out, BTW, that's not exactly what I'm paying now)?

    Of course, my other concern is for the multitude of problems that come from the "supposedly" professional large hosts. Let's face it, I use AT&T Broadband for my cable modem. They're big. Real big. But I've had more than my fair share of problems with them. When their service goes down, I'm usually warned about it well in advance and/or compensated for the grief (if I complain loud enough). With the small web hosts, I find that I don't get this level of forethought (e.g. - "we're going to be taking down the server 60 days from now on this specific date during which you'll be transparently connected via this backup server, yada yada yada") but I do get friendly, personal service (and most of the time very knowledgeable expertise).

    Perhaps part of the point of me starting this thread was to see if there were others here who had the same thoughts/fears that I do. As I'm thinking this all through, it's clear that there are pros/cons to both sides (big business w/bad customer service vs small business w/poor planning and backup plans) and I'm not sure where a small web developer who wants a zero-trouble host should side.

    Scott

  4. #4
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    Your "fears" are valid. The age issue, yes, that's a major issue with 16 yr old hosts out to make a quick buck and showoff to their mates that they're bigshot webhosts.

    You came from your-site.com where the owner of that business died and this caused the business to suffer. Therefore your concerns about 1 man operations are understood. I guess you're caught in the middle - you want the stability [or appearance of] with a large provider, yet you'd really like the service that comes from smaller operators.

    You could checkout VenturesOnline.com. Heard mostly good things about their services and they're a tad bigger than most providers, but they're not too big.....

  5. #5
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    Scott,

    logicworks (http://www.logicworks.net) is a rather large and established provider based in NY, USA.
    Norm Sherman @ Netacore
    Fast/Reliable cPanel hosting on premium bandwidth
    http://netacore.com

  6. #6
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    Originally posted by Aussie Bob
    You've been lurking here long enough to know the good suppliers who frequent these boards.
    Huh? The person's only made 5 posts and only been registered 3 months. I've been here for over a year, and made over 1000 posts, and still can't find a a good host. It's not that easy.
    Last edited by chrisb; 09-29-2002 at 01:46 AM.

  7. #7
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    To answer your question... I've found out that bigger is usually worse when it comes to dealing with any type of business. When companies grow large, they ALL suffer from communication problems (the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing), etc. On the other hand, you don't want to go with a one-person operation, OR to have 18-year Mike and his 15-year-old girlfriend, Gina, running the company either. Perhaps, a host that has about 10-20 servers, is over the age of 25, and has at least 3 people in the company, would be good. Sorry, I don't know of any like that, that I could recommend.

  8. #8
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    Originally posted by chrisb


    Huh? The person's only made 5 posts and only been registered 3 months. I've been here for over a year, and made over 1000 posts, and still can't find a a good host. It's not that easy.
    There are alot of good hosts

  9. #9
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    Hi Scott

    Sorry to hear about your problems. As far as recommendations, there are two that I have experienced and would not hestitate in recommending: Ventures Online as mentioned by Aussie Bob are excellent. They're a slightly larger company (own datacenter etc) but still with quite a bit of personal service.

    The other is Aussie Bob himself, HTTPme.com - excellent personal service, very knowledgable, very solid business model and very personable. The only downside (from your perspective I guess) would be *he is HTTPme.com* (together with one tech). I don't have a problem with that though - Bob looks fairly healthy

    All the best!

    --Josh
    Josh Powell.
    ServerSpotCheck - Is your website down?
    Skimpylink - Not as tiny as some but much cuter!

  10. #10
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    Originally posted by chrisb
    Huh? The person's only made 5 posts and only been registered 3 months. I've been here for over a year, and made over 1000 posts, and still can't find a a good host. It's not that easy.
    I wouldn't say your situation is standard, Chris.

    He did say in his post -
    I see time and time again (yes, while my post count is low, I do lurk).....
    It's amazing how many folks "lurk". We have heaps of folks who lurk etc. WHT is a great resource for the lurkers.
    WLVPN.com NetProtect owned White Label VPN provider
    Increase your hosting profits by adding VPN to your product line up

  11. #11
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    Originally posted by AceWeb


    There are alot of good hosts

    That may be true. What I should've said is that finding a good hosting company is only part of the equation. You also have to find a hosting company that meets your needs, and has the features you want. Putting the two together is the hard part.

    WossieRob: Yeah, I know I'm not normal.

  12. #12
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    Originally posted by chrisb
    WossieRob: Yeah, I know I'm not normal.
    That's why we like having you around.
    WLVPN.com NetProtect owned White Label VPN provider
    Increase your hosting profits by adding VPN to your product line up

  13. #13
    Originally posted by chrisb
    Perhaps, a host that has about 10-20 servers, is over the age of 25, and has at least 3 people in the company, would be good.
    Actually I believe Voxtreme has about 12 servers, and there are 4 partners plus staff, and 3 of the 4 are over 25.

  14. #14
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    Originally posted by Plague MPG


    Actually I believe Voxtreme has about 12 servers, and there are 4 partners plus staff, and 3 of the 4 are over 25.
    2 partners over the age of 25 - Hendrik is early 20's, and I'm the youngest of the lot
    Matthew Russell | Namecheap
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  15. #15
    I think your requirements would be best met if you look into a managed dedicated server provider that gives you and your clients a stable and private environment
    Marc Wyss - marc@mchost.com
    MCHost Inc - Experts in Private Label Reseller Plans
    http://www.mchost.com

  16. #16
    Originally posted by joshp
    The other is Aussie Bob himself, HTTPme.com - excellent personal service, very knowledgable, very solid business model and very personable. The only downside (from your perspective I guess) would be *he is HTTPme.com* (together with one tech). I don't have a problem with that though - Bob looks fairly healthy
    Unfortunately, that's no guarantee. Don't mean to be a downer, but each day could be our last. Jason (the owner of your-site.com) was about my age (early 30's) and caught pneumonia while on a business trip in Georgia (if memory serves correctly). I don't care how young or healthy you are, if you're a one-man shop it's still a concern (for me).

    That said, I took a look at Aussie Bob's site and was very impressed. IMO, sites with community forums get extra points. In his case he even has weekly (?) server uptime updates. More points for that.

    Scott

  17. #17
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    I was not being serious when I made that remark about Bob looking healthy - it was supposed to be a little light hearted humor... hence the

    I agree, being young isn't a guarantee of health. You can't but run your life by whether or not someone who you're doing business with may or may not die. That's silly. Nothing in life is guaranteed.

    If you want the personal service, if you want to build a relationship with the owner of the business, it's got to be a small one (and quite often a one man show).

    If you want the "stability" (not sure if that's the correct thing to say these days with the Worldcom fiasco and so forth), then you go for the big company where the chances of you getting that "extra" service are much less.

    Aussie Bob is very open about most aspects of his business which I love! He doesn't try to hide behind false pretenses. I also love the community he's building around his business. It's a business model that will carry HTTPme well into the future (imo).

    All the best whatever your decision!

    --Josh
    Josh Powell.
    ServerSpotCheck - Is your website down?
    Skimpylink - Not as tiny as some but much cuter!

  18. #18
    Just wanted to add some additional info since I think I may have left the wrong impression about something. I am not opposed to the younguns'. As I said before, I'm only 31 myself. Now, all things being equal, would I feel safer doing business with a guy in his 50's over one in his mid-20's? Sure. But, all things are never equal. My present host offers a lot of bandwidth and storage under a very cheap reseller plan. The owner is older than most and has been in business longer than most. These factors gave him an edge when I was researching hosts a few months ago. But there were things his company lacked as well. No forums, for one.

    I should note that I've been getting private messages (and even some recommendations here) for the types of businesses that frequent this forum. I'm not opposed to that, but my original intent was more of questioning whether I might be better off with the types of larger hosts that don't frequent this site based on my specific concerns (e.g. - size of company and lack of "big-business" mentality in terms of providing significant advance notice of server changes, etc.). Many of the folks who have PM'd me or have been recommended here haven't really provided me with the reasons why their companies are "different" in this regard.

    I have no doubt that many of the frequently-recommended companies here are superior to the bigger companies in terms of price, bandwidth/storage, PHP/MySQL limits (or lack of), and community forums.

    All is not lost though. My business is still small enough now that I can still afford to take some chances on some of the smaller shops. Thanks to all for all of the great input thus far.

    Scott
    Last edited by Scott R; 10-06-2002 at 10:02 PM.

  19. #19
    Originally posted by joshp
    I agree, being young isn't a guarantee of health. You can't but run your life by whether or not someone who you're doing business with may or may not die. That's silly. Nothing in life is guaranteed.
    Yes and no. As a small web developer, someone doing business with me will be taking that same chance, so I don't want to sound hypocritical about it. But, as I said, it's one factor in the entire decision-making process (and not an insignificant one, IMO). Let's leave death out of the discussion for now. What about when he gets sick? Or goes on vacation? Or some other major event occurs in his life? Does he even have some level of backup? Some of the nicest, highest value hosts out there don't. Does this make them bad? Of course not. But it's a negative factor, nonetheless.

    OK, I think I've beaten this one to death. Sorry.

    Perhaps another question I should be asking (probably in a new thread), is what kind of "plan" the web developers who frequent this site have for moving customers quickly. I've wondered if it might be a good idea to have a backup (2nd choice) web host's reseller plan already signed up and ready to go in case I had to move all of my clients quickly from one host to another.

    Scott

  20. #20
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    Actually along the lines of business owners dying. My accountant asked me to create some kind of manual should something happen. This topic was actually discussed in our .COMmunity recently. So I have a file on zip disk with heaps of notes and passwords.....just incase.

    Terrible thought it is about dying but I'm 33 now and several years ago, I had a startling revelation that I wasn't immortal.
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  21. #21
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    Originally posted by Scott R
    Just wanted to add some additional info since I think I may have left the wrong impression about something. I am not opposed to the younguns'. As I said before, I'm only 31 myself.
    I'm 33. You young pup you!!

    Around these parts, that just about makes me an oldy.
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  22. #22
    Originally posted by Aussie Bob
    Actually along the lines of business owners dying. My accountant asked me to create some kind of manual should something happen. This topic was actually discussed in our .COMmunity recently. So I have a file on zip disk with heaps of notes and passwords.....just incase.

    Terrible thought it is about dying but I'm 33 now and several years ago, I had a startling revelation that I wasn't immortal.
    You should go live in Le Lavandou in France, where the mayor has decided that nobody in the town is allowed to die, by law.

    Yes, this is true.
    Marc Wyss - marc@mchost.com
    MCHost Inc - Experts in Private Label Reseller Plans
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  23. #23
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    Originally posted by Kiwi
    You should go live in Le Lavandou in France, where the mayor has decided that nobody in the town is allowed to die, by law.

    Yes, this is true.
    So I take it they arrest you if you die and bury you in a box for your punishment?
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  24. #24
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    Originally posted by Aussie Bob

    So I take it they arrest you if you die and bury you in a box for your punishment?
    That would be as close to a textbook case of the punishment fitting the crime as I could think of...lol

  25. #25
    Very much impressive, AussieBob.
    I guess you could help me,
    http://webhostingtalk.com/showthread...threadid=97208

    Thx.
    -Bandi
    HTTPhits.com

    Originally posted by Aussie Bob

    That's why we like having you around.

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