Hosting Recommendations?

[jonnyplatt]

Hello folks,

I'm getting a bit fed up with the speed of the VPS my main site is currently hosted on, and I also believe that the price is a little high for the spec having been with them for a year or two and taken a look at some of their competitors.

I thought a lot of the issue was latency between the server and the shopwindow servers, however trying some other webservices recently (such as yahoo's) it seems it takes an average of 10 seconds to fetch anything from anywhere else on the web, which strikes me as pretty slow.

I was wondering if people could share the speeds they are getting from their shopwindow site and the hosting they are on - I'm aware AW recommend 1&1 but they look a bit pricey to me - does anyone use a2b2 or cheapvps, incidentally?

Many thanks,
Jonny Platt

[Amoochi]

I use 1&1 and have done for a long while and they are as far as i'm concerned the best hosts around at the moment. Some of their packages may seem a little pricey if your coming off a virtual package and going dedicated, but if you look carefully through their packages, they are seriously competetive for the hardware they offer.

The sort of questions you should be asking yourself are, how many sites do you plan on having, is virtual hosting good enough for your needs, what kind of income can you make to cancel out the costs...

Many years ago I started off with virtual hosting, but quickly found that my ambition was far greater than my hosts capabilities. I swapped to Webfusion that were about the best UK hosts at the time for entry level dedicated servers and was happy with them until other companies started entering the UK market and when US companies started offering unlimited bandwidth, which I was finding essential with one of my sites alone using over 200 gig of bandwidth a week as it's seriously media heavy. I then swapped to EV1servers in one of their former states and ejoyed their services for nigh on 5 years, until the self service style maintainence grew too costly time wise for me, then I decided I needed a managed solution, so 1&1 came into play, because they started offering unlimited bandwidth and some seriously beefy servers at really good prices. I had some problems with the initial setup due to server differences and the likes, but now i'm established with 1&1 I can't see me going to any other host now, they've proved too reliable.

Cheapest isn't best when it comes to hosting. You just have to make sure your income can cover your outgoings to justify the extra expense that comes with peace of mind.

Both cheapvps and a2b2 to me look like reseller hosts, why not cut the middle man out and find out who the parent host is, they would be cheaper right from the start. Looking at their options and 1&1's cheapest possible shared hosting package, you'd still be better off with 1&1.

Parent hosting companies are always better and cheaper than reseller hosts, for a start if you need support, your not dependent upon waiting for 3 way conversations.

[Confuscius]

Personally, I have some single, reseller and vps hosting accounts - all with differnt companies - what they all have in common is that they are located in the uk so that I do not get embroiled in issues over domain extensions.

For vps have a look at memset.com or webhosting.uk.com for a cheaper option. For reseller hosting, my favourite is clook.net and for one offs try heart internet.

I have never really had a bad hosting experience but then I like to research before I buy.

Dedicated hosting comes later, in my view but depends on what else you want to run.

It would be interesting to know where people are hosting their current Shop Window installations - mine are all on VPS.

Paul

[IntroSites]

I did have my SW on an a2b vps but it was an overkill, as all process work is done AW end.

Now have SW on a small shared account with Clook, excellent.

I reco Meir Hosting & Clook

[kingsib]

they give masses of storage european servers and bucket loads of two way bandwidth.

if anyone would like to try them out i can lend you some space on my account for a trial period, email me if your interested.

steven
steven@(blah)ilkleynet(blah).co.uk
remove the (blah)'s

[Bluesplayer]

I have hosting with 2 companies - http://theemailshop.co.uk and http://www.lunarpages.com. My main site is with theemailshop and I store a great many videos on lunar. Theemailshop have been ultra reliable. They are very cheap and offer unlimited bandwidth. They are also very responsive to emails etc. I have been with them for a year or 2 now and thoroughly recommend them as my site is hardly ever down - if ever come to think of it. Lunarpages offer a huge amount of webspace and bar for a period where they migrated to new servers they have also been pretty good but I wouldn't trust them to the extent I trust Theemailshop.

Regards
Bluesplayer.