Domains and Hosts - who to choose?

TheEffect

I run a small business and use Idotz for domains and SurpassHosting for hosting. Idotz are very cheap and the support is great. SurpassHosting offers shared (what you would require to start a small business) hosting plans which come with cPanel and Fantastico.

cPanel allows you to setup email accounts on the server, upload/download files, look at bandwidth, usage, who's visiting your site and a lot more. Fantastico allows you to install software onto the server with 1 click, for example, you can setup a shop with 1 click which allows you do have accounts for customers, contact forms, different payment methods etc.

Or you could just use FTP and upload your ready edited template straight to the server and it's done.

I'd definitely go with idotz or surpass.

moonrakerz

Mr_Oink wrote: »

Be wary of 1&1, many of my customers tell me they have the worst customer support known. They have pretty, big, glossy adds to draw you in :-) They are also said to be spam friendly and lots of admins - me included - firewall off all of the mail servers. This can give you reliability issues with email delivery - so be careful.

I have used 1 & 1 for years, never had a problem, so have never had to use customer support.
Don't recognise "spam friendly" - that is the main reason I got my own domain, it gives me total control over any spammers.

Mr_Oink

I think you miss the point of 'spam friendly'. It means 1&1 are a *source* of spam - that's why lots of people (tanlop) block their ranges at the firewall. It's an issue to *send* mail from their IPs - not receive it.

People have mixed opinions of 1&1. I personally known them for spam. I can't say I get *any* spam from 1&1 or it's customers now, as we blocked their ranges long ago.

As far as service and support goes. Lots of my previous clients don't have a good word to say about them. The common complaints I hear include "slow to respond(unless you owe them money)", "rude", "unhelpful" and "expensive". I can qualify all of those from my own experience with them a couple of years ago.

That's just one opinion - it's not the only one, it's no more right or wrong than anyone elses - it may not reflect your own experience. I take the view that if enough clients say it to me, there is no smoke without fire ;-)

puppet1984

i used haisoft for over 5 years and never had any problems. good support too.

Mr_Oink

I must mention a small reseller host in Canada. I've had really good, personal service off of Scott and he's great for those who need a bit of help getting up and running. Competitive too.

http://www.datona.com.