My hosting service gone South?

[Brian Hall]

I've had a Web site with a company for well over 5 years and it has been a generally good experience. Few outages and, since I hardly ever had a problem, I seldom had to ask for help.

Based on this experience, I ordered a new account for another business. It was a bit difficult to get signed up, but I managed somehow. They took my money and sent me a 7 page "welcome" letter saying that the domain would "propagate" in 24-48 hours. A week later it still wasn't up.

It's impossible to reach any real person at this company by telephone. "Due to their rapid growth" they don't have anyone to answer the phone. They ask that you leave a message, but nobody calls back.

On the few occasions I've gotten their attention via e-mail, all I get back is a bunch of boilerplate saying that they've received my message and that they'll respond soon.

They do not - at least in no meaningful way. They avoid the question(s) asked and play dumb.

Evidently I ordered a Windows platform site and should have ordered Unix. That is what I have already and I've learned to work with it. I want the new site to function just like my first one but I'm getting nowhere. We've been at this since May 27.

This morning, in frustration, I sent them an email telling them to cancel the new account and to refund the money paid. There has been no response. I expect none.

The offending service is Hosting.com

As I said, my experience has been good, but I fear they may be having some serious problems. When this happens, service is the first thing to suffer.

I want a good, reliable, STABLE hosting service that will respond to my needs. I'm not concerned with their excuses.

Right now I pay $39 a month for 100 MB of server space. I don't know if that's too much or too little. What I want is SERVICE and if it costs a little more it's worth it.

My "good" Hosting.com account has something called WSM that allows me to manage my account pretty easily. I need that or something just as simple and easy.

I need FrontPage extensions. One service told me they didn't have it (I really don't know what it is, but I do all my Web work in FrontPage so I guess I need it.) I've also got some Perl scripts running, but beyond that, I have very little idea of what goes on within the hosting service, and I haven't got time to futz with a new learning curve.

In a word, I want to "push the button" and the right things happen. And when they don't, I want somebody to fix them - pronto - not give me a lot of baloney about how busy they are or that they'll get back to me in 24-48 hours - or days - or never.

Thanks for listening. I hope to receive some positive comments and direction soon.

[vphost]

$39 for 100meg of space is quite a lot. If you want to settle with free webhosting, then we can help, however we do not have any paid hosting plans.
Frontpage ext, cpanel, perl, cgi, php sql, and all the stuff that goes with the plan.
If you don't mind free, then come visit us.
If you cannot be bothered with free webhost, then maybe some paid hosting company can give you some help, and good luck.

[gate2vn]

Even $39/month is a bit expensive for 100MB, but I think you are happy with your old service, right? I am not a fan of too cheap thing either

about the control panel, I am not sure what WSM is, it seems their own control panel. But are you looking for another account on Windows platform right? Have you tried Helm? http://www.webhostautomation.com/pro...helm/demo.aspx

you should state more about your requirements: another 100MB space? or more? how about the transfer? do you require MS SQL database? Or any other kind of database?

[TJR Networks]

Evidently I ordered a Windows platform site and should have ordered Unix.

I got the impression he wanted Unix based hosting but accidently ordered a Windows based account. Could you please confirm what operating system you are looking for Brian and list your bandwidth and database requirements.

[ryza]

Checkout our plans
http://www.deluxnetwork.com/pgs/hosting_plans.php

If you want to email me with a list of your complete requirements (bandwidth, space, features) I can mail you a custom quote

msn: services@deluxnetwork.com
email: ryza@deluxnetwork.com

[Brian Hall]

... for this site are quite modest. It's informational and with only one feed-back form (at present). I doubt if large numbers of people are going to frequent the site unless directed there by other media advertising. Our market area is just too small - only the Island of Oahu, Hawaii, so 'band width' isn't really a concern. We may expand later, but with another domain on a different subject, but again, it won't e something with world-wide appeal. Nobody's going to get rich from this site.

My main issue is being able to work with a real person in real time when and as needed. Hosting.com seems to have abandoned the concept of service to customers and I see no need to pay them if I've got to do the work.

The Web site is: http://www.notenttermite.com - if they haven't taken it down yet.

We need e-mail and some aliases with forwarding to another address. The subscriber doesn't know diddly about the Internet so inquiries will have to be forwarded to me from his site. I've had a little experience with some Perl scripts but I'm not expert. Sometimes I use a Perl form, but mostly I've shifted to FrontPage.

FREE sounds OK, but there's always a trade off - carrying advertising for others, inaccesibility when help is needed, etc. I've learned that you get pretty much what you pay for, so I'm looking for suggestions. We're willing to pay reasonable costs, but will demand honest and real service.

Thanks again.

[Brian Hall]

I use Windows XP and possibly got confused that there are Windows servers and Unix servers. My "good" Hosting.com site is on a Unix server (I'm told). I'm also told that I can't have the WSM feture on a Windows server. It seems that any way one turns there's a "catch."

[TJR Networks]

Hi Brian,

TJR Networks can offer you 250MB of space and 5GB transfer per month for US$29.99 annually. Our packages include PHP and mySQL support, CPanel with RVSkins, Fantastico, Spam Assassin and more. All of our hosting plans now include a 99.9% uptime guarantee and a 15 day no questions asked money back guarantee.

If you have any queries about this offer, please feel free to contact us via PM, email or post a message in the 'Pre-Sales Questions' section of our support forums.

[Tamranda]

Hello,

I think you should consider a Unix Server with cPanel. cPanel is a really good Control Panel & Im pretty sure you'll enjoy. In case of Resellers, it also has WHM (Web Host Manager) which is again very good. It is feature rich as well as Simple, so you won't be having much problems & even if you do, we are still here

We offer Web Hosting on Linux Servers with cPanel & Fantastico. Fantastico is actully an addon for cPanel which helps you install feature rich scripts with a click of a button. You can install Shoping Carts, Content Management Systems & more than 50 scripts with just a click of a button & no programming knowledge is required at all.

Here is one of our Shared Plan ::

400MB Space
5GB Bandwidth
cPanel, Fantastico
Frontpage Extentions

Price :: $3.95/month
Details :: http://Tamranda.com/hosting-shared.htm

If you are looking for more Space, you can check our 800 MB Plan with 10 GB Bandwidth for $7.95/month

You can check our Uptime here :: http://www.siteuptime.com/statistics...&&UserId=25792

Also, We are Geek Certified Company :: http://geekcertified.com/display-140.html

If you have any questions, Please Feel Free to Email us or PM me here.

[Shadow Warrior]

Hello Brian,

StaticHost would like to offer you the following Custom Plan!

100MB Space
10GB Bandwidth
Full PHP, Perl, CGI and MySQL Support
All the standard features listed at http://www.statichost.co.uk/webhosting.php
cPanel 10 with RVskin and Fantastico
Price: $2.50/month!

You will be hosted on our Dual 2.80GHz Intel Xeon™ HT (4 cpus) with 4GB ram.

This Custom Plan includes a 14 day free trial, please contact us using one of the methods mentioned below and we will be able to arrange this for you.

Email: sales@statichost.co.uk
MSN: msn@staticdotsupport.com
ICQ: 227732577
AIM: SHIS Support
Yahoo: statichostuk

Thanks!

[Duport]

cPanel would be ideal, you can enable Frontpage extentions from your control panel.

We have a number of packages on our site that may interest you.

[build-a-host]

Help House Hosting can offer you our Starter Plan, which includes:
cPanel, PHP, MySQL, Fantastico, Webstats, Email, FTP, Free Traffic, Free link submission, Free custom graphics, Fast Reliable Support, Low Prices, and Much More!
Starter Plan
$3/month!
200 MB Storage
10 GB Transfer
50 Email Accounts
50 Sub Domains
50 FTP Accounts
50 Mailing Lists
50 Auto-responders
50 MySQL Databases
If you have any questions regarding any of the plans above, please feel free to contact us at anytime using any of the following methods
Toll Free 1-888-224-3611
Live Chat (8am - midnight m-f)
Contact Page
Forum
Or any instant messenger
Yahoo= helphousehosting
MSN= helphousehosting@hotmail.com
AOL= HHHSalesnSupport
ICQ= 288524014
Skype= helphousehosting

[hottweelz]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but you need space, now, for "your" site as well as helping out your friend, correct? I may have gotten confused between Windows and Unix server requirements, and/or both. But IGCHosting.com offers all Windows Services and PrimitiveHosting.com offers all Unix Services... Feel free to visit the site and forum for details, but I can make this offer based on your requirements for about $3 / month... ($2.95 actually). If you need more space, compare all plans here: http://www.primitivehosting.com/hosting.htm. This is for Unix. For Windows, you are looking at about $10.95 per month. View this here: http://www.igchosting.com/compare.shtml

Call our 800# if you'd like to have a conversation with any of us.