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Does a good web host exist?

yourNAMEinDotComyourNAMEinDotCom subscriber Posts: 17
Hello,
Does anyone know if a good web host? I am looking for one that is

Honest - will acknowledge there is a problem when there is a problem.
Fair - will refund me or at least try to compensate for downtime.
Reliable - will not have any noticeable downtime. I don`t know if this is possible but it`s good to aim high right?
Excellent support - stuff like "Live Help" would be a plus.
Offers good value i.e. the cost:benefit ratio should be acceptable.
I have been through many, many hosts and I am really fed up of looking. They all seem to have the same cycle: Start off good > get lots of customers > get bad > lose customers > get good again or go out of business or switch business.
It seems that many of the hosting companies are run by technicians and not businesspeople. So basic things like apologising for stuff that went wrong, fixing the problem fast and offering compensation are never part of their modus operandi.
All of the hosts I`ve been through have had the "top ratings" and "awards" so that doesn`t mean anything to me at all. Please I`d appreciate some honest answers.
Whoever, you recommend, please tell me how long you`ve been with them as well.
Thanks,Aleem

Comments

  • mikebmikeb subscriber Posts: 0
    Where you looking for windows or linux hosting?
  • keyconkeycon subscriber Posts: 34
    Aleem,
    I`ve had websites at Earthlink (formerly Mindspring) since 1994 - still do. No problems whatsoever - highly recommend. They have always been responsive with customer service and problem resolution - what few problems I have had over the past 12 years and probably a dozen sites or more.
    In the past few years, I have used GoDaddy.com for most new sites. They have been terrific, too.
    I would recommend these two companies to anyone. Probably many good ones out there but I stick with what works ... and I hate hassels. Less hassels, happy Richard.
    R@ 
  • GunaGuna subscriber Posts: 2
    Just like you I`ve tried many and gave up. So many give out free or cheap deals and it only makes your business worst.
    Here is what I do now. I bought a dedicated server and take care of it myself. Basically you don`t need to do anything. You only need to know how to use a webhosting control panel and you are set to go. I don`t pay much. I get to host as many sites as I want. I got a good deal from dedicatednow.com and they are very reliable to my support questions or phone calls. I suggest you look into a solution like that or go with some well known host whom will charge a lot more than many others but will be reliable. Having your website up and running 24/7 is very important so make your choice wisely. Look around. I think you are already doing that.
    -Guna
  • iouone2iouone2 subscriber Posts: 14
    As Guna has made clear, sometimes it is best to do it yourself. I
    know I have done that on many projects in my life. If you can`t
    find what you want... make it. As some other smart SUN
    contributor has said, everything has been done. Just find
    someone to show you how to do it. ... or something like that. I`m
    not good at remembering exact quotes.
  • yourNAMEinDotComyourNAMEinDotCom subscriber Posts: 17
    Thanks for all the replies! I really appreciate them. This is why I love startupnation, the community really works when you`re looking for help and friendly advice.
    Seeing that so many of you took the time to responde, I just thought I`d give some feedback.
    Please let me say once again that I really appreciate the responses and the following are in no way an evaluation of the author but just my take on the hosts.
    iouuone2, I was asking about the length of time you`ve been with them because, like I said, many of them start off great but after about a year or two, they begin to go downhill.
    Degrees, there are two things I don`t like about Hostway. First, their "Live Help" seems to be only for Sales and not Customer Support. There is a message there, isn`t there? The second thing I don`t like about them is their price structure. 600MB and 50GB for 13.95 per month doesn`t seem very competitive.
    Chris, GlowHost.com seems to be a great deal for a small business website but I actually get a couple million hits per month on some of my websites.
    Mikeb, I`m looking for linux.
    Keycon, GoDaddy has been a nightmare for me. I tried them. With one of the websites I had with them, my account was reset to blank after two days and we lost all that we had done on the website already. GoDaddy.com cost me great embarrassment with the client. They have great prices but that`s about all that`s great about them. The tech support people never admitted any wrongdoing or apology and never answered the questions I was asking. It was quite simple. I bought the domain name on a Monday and by Tuesday, the site was up and running. On Wednesday everything was gone and my account was reset to like brand new. It was as if I did nothing at all. "So where`s the site we built yesterday?" would get a response like, "Your account is up and running fine." They just kept saying everything is working fine and were never able to explain what happened to the design we had put up. They literally erased all that we had done and we had to start everything over from scratch. By that time my client was frustrated and left. It seems they must have thought we couldn`t have done much in two days after registration. We were on a tight deadline and had done almost everything in those two days.
    As for Earthlink, it seems to me that it is an ISP that offers hosting. Is that correct? Well for the same reason that Petar tells me to avoid resellers I think I`ll avoid companies whose core business is not hosting.
    Vincent, MountainMedia`s prices are crazy, not at all competitve and they don`t even have live online support or maybe I`m not finding it?
    Petar, aplus and apollo don`t look too bad. At least worth some research.
    Vincent and Guna, as for doing it myself, I may have to take your advice on that too but I`m actually not looking to give myself more work. It would be nice if I could outsource this.
    Thanks once again to all of you! I can`t say it enough, thank you, thank you, thank you.
  • bfleming98bfleming98 subscriber Posts: 0
    I like http://www.1and1.com</A>
    They have phone support with a call center... That`s important *when* things go wrong.
     
  • DavidthePuppeteerDavidthePuppeteer subscriber Posts: 3
    Dear Aleem:
    In the time it takes to go through frustration of "many bad Hosts" you could learn to make your own. I know, I know..it might not be sophisticated as what you want, but doing it yourself gives you control based on the ease and flexibility of the format you use to make a website.
    This statement is not meant to belittle you but to make a point. "Their are children under 10 years of age making professional websites" Here`s the point. Theirs a learning curve to making a good website which is diametrically tied into your knowledge of your computer. In other words, in time you can make a killer website without knowledge of html, through simple trial., error, and patience.
    All these suggestions I mention in the latter statements I applied in making my website. www.nativepuppets.com</A> . Take a look at the depth of the links and the use of streaming video, and pictures. This is by no means me offering you my services however I would advise you how YOU can do it yourself.
    Briefly, here`s what I did.
    First, I am a Bellsouth DSL Ultra customer - this gives me access to certain amount of website space. I did some investigating and discovered they provide "TEMPLATES". Any moderately literate computer person can use these templates. The instructions provided are a step-by-step approach; kind like filling in the blanks - using many inherent Windows and Internet Explorer concepts - just like MS Word, but easier & quicker.
    Adding and editing are equally as easy.
    And so far the cost is zero. If you plan on high traffic - I`m sure you can find template severs using T1 - T3 bandwidth.
    Adding pictures is a snap, making links is easy,  & your choices of a look for your website are numerous.
    Their are three notes of worthy consideration - personal technical support is almost always available (they answer a large array of questions); most templates come with a HMTL option (I did this with the counter at the bottom of my webpage - the counter. With HTML, you can Google them and literally see what you want and cut/paste the HTML codes - poof, you are a pro; third, having a template doesn`t mean you have a memorable website address -with  Godaddy.com you can find a memorable website for less than $20 per year.
    Remember, while flashy websites can be memorable - if you build one with a template, the up-to-date content your web design will reinforce what you say.
    Here`s my final word of advice. Go to the library sometimes and read articles from computer magazines. In time you will learn fascinating tricks for web design and look like a pro.
    Take your future into your own hands.
    David Coronel
  • DavidDavid subscriber Posts: 3
    I like http://www.1and1.com
    They have phone support with a call center... That`s important *when* things go wrong.
     Conversely, I`ve had a bad experience with 1and1.  The way I see it, they spent way too much money on slick advertising and not enough on infrastructure.  Things such as creating databases and making basic server changes take hours to complete where it`s instantaneous elsewhere.  While their control panel is the easiest to understand, it`s also the most devoid of features.I`ve found cPanel to be the best non-enterprise server control panel so far.  It locks in nicely with CGI, PHP, PHPMyAdmin, and webmail.  Anyone who`s thinking of turning their spare server into a hosting company will love cPanel`s integrated billing features.  The best host is ultimately the one that best fits your preference or experience (and tolerance) for doing things like databasing, troubleshooting downtimes, and file transfer.  A cheaper host may be good for a do-it-yourselfer while a more expensive one may charge an inflated price for a worthless "business" package.  One recommendation is to check out hosting service review sites on the Web.
  • yourNAMEinDotComyourNAMEinDotCom subscriber Posts: 17
    I just want to advise everyone to stay far from hostgator dot com
    They are the absolute worst. Their weak security systems allowed someone to hack into one of my domains twice and go phishing.
    You know what the customer support rep does when I call her? Accuse me of phishing in a tone that she`s convinced it was me.
    They`re the absolute worse ever.
  • dlakeydlakey subscriber Posts: 1
    We have had very good luck with godaddy.com for the past couple of years.  Some minor problems with the account email service, but not real biggie.Dan
  • yourNAMEinDotComyourNAMEinDotCom subscriber Posts: 17
    Thanks for the feedback. That was precisely one of the problems we had with godaddy as well. Customers were complaining that they were not receiving e-mail. I believe they have fixed this now but can`t say for sure yet.
  • dlakeydlakey subscriber Posts: 1
    ...That was precisely one of the problems we had with godaddy as well. Customers were complaining that they were not receiving e-mail. I believe they have fixed this now but can`t say for sure yet.[/QUOTE]
     
    Well that wasn`t exactly the same problem we have had.  ours was more of an issue that on occassion godaddy doesn`t wan`t to download to our Microsoft Outlook.  We are able to view the mail just fine on the web-based version, it just doesn`t download, but this seems to just come and go.  A few days it will download just fine, and then without me doing anything on my end it stops downloading.  I haven`t gotten irritated enough yet to call up customer support and complain.
     
    That is really of a minor concern right now, considering some of the other work I have to do on the site and the business.
     
     
     
  • rocknroll333rocknroll333 subscriber Posts: 2
    Cheap webhost that is TOP rated and easy to use.
    THE BEST WEBHOST SOLUTION EVER IS  www.startlogic.com</A>
    Here is the secret. Dont Buy solution for the free domain name..
    First Purchase your domain name elsewhere. I use www.aplus.net</A> for my domain names.
    Purchase the TRANSFER package which is cheap. For example, My website Groove Rock Gear, cost only $30 to host for whole year. I bought it on sale from Startlogic. Their regular price for the PROLOGIC package is $70 for 12 months.
    they have great uptime, customer service is quick and its soooo easy to use and manage.I liken it to the IPOD of webhost solutions..
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