Web Hosts - the Good and the Bad

[jamesglewisf]

In case you are wondering, this site is hosted by Hosting Matters (http://hostmatters.com).

For $10/month you get no setup fee, 50MB disk, 3GIG transfer, 20 POP3, and a control panel. Most people spend more than $10 a month on cheeseburgers. It is very affordable. They also have other plans with higher limits.

Hosting Matters has great tech support, fast servers, and easy monthly billing.

For more information about finding a host, check out Hosting Strategies at JamesGLewis.com (http://jamesglewis.com/hosting.htm). It provides a good host/bad host list, plus tips on finding one to match your needs.

Please share with us your experiences with good hosts or bad hosts. Share them here, or start a new thread of your own.

[jamesglewisf]

Make sure you avoid:
ADDR (http://www.addr.com/)
CI Host (http://www.cihost.com/)
FastHosts (http://www.fasthosts.com/)
Half Price Hosting (http://www.halfpricehosting.com/)
Hurricane Electric (http://www.he.net/)
ICOM (Internet Communications) (http://www.icom.com/)
Intersessions.com (http://www.intersessions.com/)
PowerSurge (http://www.powersurge.net/)
Secure Webs (http://www.securewebs.com/)
Tri Star Web (http://www.tricreations.com/)
Virtualis (http://www.virtualis.com/) or Virtualisys (http://www.virtualisys.com/)
webhosting.com (http://www.webhosting.com/)

[TWTCommish]

Especially CI Host...Addr.com has its problems (some support emails are never answered), but CI Host is the one that can REALLY screw things up.

As for the good: I think (no pun intended) that http://www.ThinkHost.com is easily the best around...tech support is great, rates are low, and the people are friendly. I have about half a dozen sites hosted with them. :D

[shinepuppy]

Hi fellas,
can somebody elaborate on CI Host? I've noticed that everybody complains about them and their name is even banned on http://www.webhostingtalk.com for some unknown reason?!!? My partner and I were looking for a colocation for our web hosting business and for a short period of time considered these guys. What's the dillio??

Also, has anybody heard of a good/affordable colo local to DFW that allows physical access to the box? The only ones we've been able to find are incredibly expensive (over 2 thousand dollars a month for the type of bandwidth we require which is anywhere from 400 gigs to 1 terrabyte per month).

I would also like to add http://www.CyberTarp.com to the GOOD list :) Although, I think I may be impartial lol!

Have a great day everyone :)

[jamesglewisf]

We're still with www.hostmatters.com, but they are located in Florida. We started with them when they had a few dozen customers, and now I think they have several thousand.

CI Hosts just gets slammed everywhere. I think they have messed with so many people that they are on the permanent do not host list.

[jamesglewisf]

Why do you want physical access to the server?

[shinepuppy]

Hi James,
We want to be able to physically access the server(s) so we might upgrade them, back them up, install different operating systems on them, etc. It would make some processes a heck of alot easier :) We also have some non-standard machines we'd like to get running... for example a quad xeon setup with RAID. You just can't find that at Rackshack right now.

We also have had potential clients that had to turn us down because we don't have physical access to our servers. We offer server management services (very lucrative right now) and some of these CEO's hear certain buzzwords, 'physical access' for example, and without evaluating the pros and cons, immediately decide they must have it! Ugh.... if people would just think {rolleyes}

[jamesglewisf]

I'm sorry to ask stupid questions, but why don't you just get your own servers?

[shinepuppy]

Hi James,
We do own our own servers... technically, we lease our servers, but we are in total control of them and have. Basically, rackshack.net (http://www.rackshack.net) (our dedicated hosting provider) builds several different types of machines. You can lease these machines for however much per month. You buy one, and they give you the root password and you are on your own from there. Very cool setup :) PHP.net (http://www.php.net), webhostingtalk.com (http://www.webhostingtalk.com), and many other very popular domains run their setup this way. We actually have several servers at the moment and are really starting to grow :) The only drawback is they don't give physical access (they are based in Houston anyways) and they are not a colo. But you absolutely cannot beat the price!!

What we were, and are still looking for, is a place where we can build our own specialized servers (power pc, quad xeon processors, etc) with whatever we need and plug it into a data warehouse. This setup is called a Colocation (colo for short). We've found some around DFW, but they are rediculously expensive. CI-HOST has such a setup, and they are local (Euless i think), and has some very good prices, but i've heard nothing but bad press about them so we're staying away for now.

Anyways, if anybody hears about a decent colo gimme a hollar :)

[jamesglewisf]

LOL! I was going to mention rackshack, but I didn't know they don't offer physical access.

I noticed that CI Hosts was local, but I'd still stay away.

[shinepuppy]

yeah, right now Rackshack is unbeatable! :) I really wish they had a Dallas Colo data center... but you know what they say about wishes. You can wish in one hand, and frappydoo in the other, then see which one fills first {eek}

Which reminds me.... what the heck is frappydoo anyhow? Did somebody get hooked on refridgerator poetry too??:D

[Grimey]

Check out the "About Us" link at the top of the page for an explanation of frappydoo.

[shinepuppy]

Ahhh thanks Grimey,
I hadn't made my way up to that page yet. Sounds an aweful lot like Scrappy Doo... uhmm, do kids even watch Scooby Doo any more???

LOL... my wife was teaching her 3rd graders one day and she made some analogy to 'The Smurfs'.... all she got in return was puzzled faces {eek}

Alright, that's enough thread hijacking for today ;)

[theyeti]

Originally posted by shinepuppy
uhmm, do kids even watch Scooby Doo any more???


I can verifiably say "NO!" and verifiably add, "At least I hope not."

I had a teacher who was literally obsessed with Scooby Doo. Once she gave us our assignment she would sit down at her desk and watch Scooby Doo on the TV while drinking coffee from her Scooby Doo mug. I am not making this up. As a result of all this I've been put off from Scooby Doo for life...

[dreuby]

For free hosting, I've used Lycos, which was very good for the four or five years I used it, and now I'm using byethost.com (that's no typo!) which has been very good, especially now their upgrades are finished and the user forum is back. You can integrate the ads into your site if you want to, and they should all be family-friendly. Because it's a small company, you're problems are answered by real people, but they're still dealt with quickly.

I wonder how theyeti and TWTCommish are - nice to see that some of us are still around. :)

[Dude111]

I found this company who offers 800MB FREE!!

http://www.i12.com