Softlayer Dedicated Servers
Today I finished transferring the last of my websites to my new dedicated server on Softlayer. Many of my friends tried to convince me to choose other dedicated server hosts like RackSpace, FastServers and The Planet. I had heard of the new company Softlayer from a friend who had just signed up at Rackspace. I knew that Rackspace was rock-solid when it came to customer support, but I also knew they were a bit pricey. When I signed up at Softlayer, they were running some pretty agressive promotions on their specials page. I ended up getting a free upgrade on RAM to 4 gigs, and an extra 250 GB hard drive by shopping off of the specials.
Since I am not the most web savvy person I ordered the PLESK control panel with my new dedicated server (cPanel and Webmin are also available). There was a bit of a learning curve in provisioning new domains on the server, but after a few false starts I had it all figured out. The hardest part of running a dedicated server is learning all of the different features, the possibilities are truly endless. You can truly customize nearly any aspect of the server remotely. One thing that bugged me was that by default most ports are left wide open. You have to lock the server down manually using firewall settings and other security features.
So far I am pleased with the dedicated server and the value I got for the money. For $279 per month I have an Intel Xeon-Clovertown 5335 QuadCore processor, 4 Gigs of RAM, Dual 250 Gig hard drives, 2000 GB of bandwidth and 64 dedicated IP addresses with a PLESK 100 user license. There many other details but these are the basics of my server. Only time will tell the tale of the reliability of softlayer servers, but so far so good.
iPowerweb’s Long Hold Times
This past week a friend of mine called me for some help with transferring a domain from one host to another. He had signed up the previous year with the hosting company ipowerweb and was displeased with their support. He wanted to get the auth code that was needed for a domain transfer and could not figure out how to get the information through his vDeck control panel. He stated that he had tried calling the toll free tech support line several times, always giving up after 30-40 minutes on hold. He also claimed that his emails (trouble tickets) were going unanswered.
Since I was familiar with iPowerweb and their hosting platform having used them a few times in the past I decided to see if the claims were true. So I picked up the phone on a Monday afternoon (1:00 pm MST) and proceeded to dial the 24/7 helpline at ipowerweb. I had learned from previous experience that the call center was staffed the highest during the early afternoon. In the past I had not experienced any hold time longer than 27 minutes. My phone has a call timer and as time ticked on I began to understand my friend’s frustration. After one hour and seventeen minutes on hold I finally gave up and tried a different route. After pulling a few strings I was able to get the auth code and help my friend transfer his domain eliteaudio1.com away from iPower.
Now, to be fair to iPowerweb - I later found out that they were in the middle of migrating all of their servers from their existing L.A. datacenter to their new Burlington, MA data center. The massive migration was due to the merger of iPower with Endurance. Not that a giant merger is a valid excuse for insanely long hold times. But, with any cross-country server migration many things can and will go terribly wrong. I would think that as the migration comes to a close, hold times will improve and support will return back to normal/tolerable. I’ve heard that the migration is nearly completed as they plan to close the doors at the L.A. facility in early March, 2008.
iPower is still a solid option in the sea of shared hosting providers, but beginners may be better served by choosing a smaller locally based hosting company. Many ISP’s offer basic hosting packages at a competitive price, and they are usually easier to contact for simple support questions. At my old ISP I could walk in and actually talk to a tech support guy and get help face-to-face. For the price-shoppers that don’t need tech support - check out our cheap hosting top ten list in the right column.
Some Web Hosts come in Pairs
It has come to my attention over the past few years that many popular web hosting companies happen to own or operate second and third hosting companies. It makes sense when you think about, sometimes success can kill a very popular web host when they can’t keep up with the explosive growth. As the growth curve continues, the hosting companies customer support and staff in general become overworked and severely understaffed. I have heard of some big hosting companies that hire 20-30 new employees on a weekly basis to try and keep up with the growth.
As often happens, the “successful” web hosting company is unable to keep up with the growth and the quality of support declines rapidly. After a while, the perceived value of the host drops as the negative buzz grows and festers as customers complain louder and louder. Until suddently, this once popular and very reliable web host has been branded a complete failure. Not because of the hosting package or price itself, but because what was once an acceptable 5 minute hold time for toll-free support has blossomed into a painful hour-plus just to talk to a support rep.
What do you do if your a hosting company that grows too big, too fast and is now branded a dud? Just start a new web hosting company with a fresh domain and a new S Corp filing. While some companies truly start fresh with everything from new staff to new datacenters and fresh hardware to updated support call centers. Most companies just go with the fresh website and try to trick us into thinking this is indeed a new web hosting company.
Who are these hosting companies living lives of duplicity? I know of several, but suspect that there are many more flying under the radar. The most prominent may be the duo of BlueHost and HostMonster. BlueHost was started nearly 18 months before Hostmonster but when you look closely they are virtually the same company. This is not a secret, but something that is very rarely talked about in the open. They have nothing to hide, they simply wanted a second chance at building a better web hosting service.
Another prime example is the web hosting mogul iPowerweb. They are one of the founding fathers of the web hosting industry but have had a couple of second tries. First, was the supposed iPowerweb partner Startlogic. What started as a super-reseller quickly turned into simply another morphing of the ipowerweb company. You could even argue that iPowerweb’s more recent launch of a corporate website ipower.com was a stab at a second try. Now, they have joined forces with Endurance International and have quite the big web hosting family of brands like , Dot5Hosting, BizLand, FatCow and more.
Acquisitions are no stranger to the web hosting industry. A long chain of acquisitions was what brought the hosting mogul Interland into the spotlight. They chose a dangerous and tricky path of growth by web hosting acquisitions that nearly collapsed when the dot-com bubble burst. While they are without question a very big web hosting company, many would argue that bigger is not always better.
Some other well-known web hosting pairs are Jumpline.com and DigitalSpace.net, MidPhase and AN Hosting, LYPHA and IMhosted, OMNIS and WebHostingPad, the now dead FeaturePrice relaunched as IX Web Hosting by co-founder. Do you know of other web hosting companies operating more than one website? Share them with us in the comments.
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iPowerweb and vDeck Hosting
iPowerweb has been around for a very long time. They were the first hosting company to offer one simple hosting plan for one low price. Many even believe that iPowerweb was the first hosting company to charge less than $10 per month for hosting. During their first year online they started using the vDeck control panel instead of the popular cPanel system. I’m not sure if they set out to create a better control panel or if their intent was to make it harder for customers to transfer away. vDeck has evolved since those early days and is now a fairly stable control panel controlling nearly one million domains.
One of the pitfalls for customers who are using and like the vDeck system is the scarcity of other hosts using it. Because the vDeck system is proprietary, only iPowerweb or iPowerweb affiliated hosting companies are using the vDeck control panel. Which means if you get fed up with the questionable support and long hold-times at iPowerweb, you have only 3 other choices in hosting providers. The only other vDeck hosting companies that I am aware of are Startlogic.com, Dot5hosting.com and BlueFishHosting.com. All three of these hosting companies are known to be very closely affiliated to iPowerweb.
The same argument could be made for users who are happy with the cPanel or PLESK control panels. But the fact is, when you get used to doing things a certain way - it is very hard to change. Every hosting company and every control panel has it’s own little quirks. The key is to make sure you like it before you sign up for the long haul. Most hosting companies give you a 30 day window to poke around and get used to things. If you’re not happy with the control panel or support, simply cancel your acount and get a refund.
Cheap Domain Name Registration
Buying a domain name is the first and most basic step in building a website or getting your own .com email address. While most hosting companies include a free domain name with the purchase of a web hosting account, there are times when one is not enough. A classic example is purchasing the .net and .org domains to accompany your .com domain if for no other reason than to keep others from registering them. Often times a competitor will register your exact domain name but in a less popular TLD like .us or .info. Many people just like to register new domain names and hold on to them for future use. A popular example is buying your first and last name.com or your company name.com before you are ready to build a website.
For those of us that need more than one domain name, where should we go to purchase and register additional domains? One of the most popular domain name registrars is GoDaddy.com where domain names are always cheap. One word of caution when purchasing anything from Go Daddy. Beware the upsell! The last time I registered a domain name with Go Daddy I counted 9 different upsell pages where I had to scroll to the bottom of the page and click “no thanks” just to complete my simple domain name purchase. While extremely annoying, some feel it is a small price to pay for the cheapest domain names available.
VDS - Virtual Dedicated Server Hosting
For most people, the Mercedes Benz of web hosting accounts is the dedicated server hosting account. Dedicated servers give you complete control over your web server providing everything from DNS management to remote SSH access. If you want to upgrade to the latest version of PHP, no problem. If you want to install web applications directly to the server, you got it. Dedicated servers put you in the drivers seat and you alone. Another major plus with dedicated servers is that you don’t have to share the server or any of its resources with other users - unlike shared web hosting. So, why don’t more people own dedicated servers?
The two major hangups people have with dedicated server hosting plans are high prices and technical knowledge. First, with all the added features and stability comes a much steeper price sometimes as much as ten times what a shared hosting account would cost. For many small businesses and new webmasters the price alone places dedicated servers completely out of reach. Second, is the additional technical knowledge required to setup and manage a dedicated server hosting account. Most basic web users wouldn’t even be able to figure out how to setup an email account or FTP server on a dedicated box. Needless to say, it takes a lot more experience and brains to manage a dedicated server.
Virtual Dedicated Servers were created to give users the security and stability of a dedicated server without the high prices and the need to hire geeksquad to turn it on. Jumpline.com latched on to the VDS idea several years ago and have slowly been perfecting virtual dedicated server hosting. A few months ago we began having problems with one of our shared hosting accounts that hosts a very popular hunting dog breeder directory. After crashing the shared hosting server for the 7th time we began looking for a better hosting option. That’s when we decided to give Jumplines VDS hosting plan a try. The account creation was a breeze and the best part is that our site hasn’t gone down since switching hosting plans almost months ago. We couldn’t be happier.
Jumpline.com is currently running an agressive promotion to get new users to give virtual dedicated server hosting a try. They are giving away FREE 3 month test-drives on their very popular J2-VDS account. You get 2 Gigs of storage space, a dedicated ip address, daily backups and the ability to host up to 25 websites on one VDS hosting account. Click here to learn more about this FREE offer.
HostMonster Web Hosting Test
The other day a friend of mind asked me to recommend a good hosting company. This happens to me all the time since most of my friends know I make a living by recommending good hosting companies. This particular friend wanted to create a blog site on the subject of food storage and emergency preparedness. Since I manage quite a few blogs myself I am a big fan of the wordpress blogging software. Wordpress is very easy to install and the basic setup and cofiguration is a breeze. Plus, there are literally thousands of wordpress themes available for free. This eliminates one of the major roadblocks to building a website - the actual web design phase. Most people don’t have the skills or knowledge to design a website so free wordpress themes are a great way to go.
Many hosting companies are offering wordpress as part of their free software packages. HostMonster is one of these hosting companies that I like to use for wordpress blog sites. They include the suite called Fantastico that includes an arsenal of webmaster tools and free software. With hostmonster the setup was a snap and I had the blog setup in less than 5 minutes. Hostmonster also offers a free domain name to customers so my friend was able to register a domain and get his food storage website live all in a matter of minutes.
Here are some other important factors that influenced me to recommend HostMonster to my friend. First, they are located in Utah which is where myself and my friend lives. I always try to support local businesses and shops to help the economy in my home State. Second, I have personally met the owners of hostmonster and even have their cell phone numbers should anything go wrong. The last thing I want is to have my friends call tech support and be placed on hold for 30 minutes while their site is down. Finally, Hostmonster offers a great web hosting package at a killer price. You can get 300 Gigs of storage space, and host multiple domains on one robust account for only $5.95 per month.
Click on over to HostMonster and see if they are the kind of hosting company you would like to do business with. If by chance you don’t like their offerings, there are literally hundreds of other web hosting companies to choose from.
HostPapa Web Host Review
Once again our friends North of the border have created a formidable web hosting company. This time it’s in the form of a newly launched service called HostPapa Web Hosting. They are one of the first web hosting companies I have found that appear to be concerned about the environment. Their home page claims they are powered by 100% green energy. Web hosting datacenters are notorious for consuming a lot of electricity to keep thousands of servers and cooling fans running.
HostPapa offers the standard fare with their basic web hosting plan. Things that we have all come to expect in the ultra-competitive industry like hosting up to 11 domains on one account, a free domain name and more storage space & bandwidth than anyone but a porn site would ever need. HostPapa does maintain an actual data center in the USA with a Niagra Falls address.
Click on over to HostPapa Web Hosting and see if they are the right host for you. For only $5.95 per month their web hosting package is right in the thick of the battle.
Free Web Hosting
How much money are you willing to pay for a good web hosting service? If you are one of the millions who doesn’t want to pay anything for a website you may be interested in a freehost. Free web hosting providers have their disadvantages, but there are a few important benefits that you should consider.
Hey, It’s Free!
Free web hosts are popular because they are well, FREE! Most people can’t pass up anything that’s free. Everyone wants to save money when they can. Free hosts can free up cash you might spend on web hosting so you can use it on things that are more important to you.
Good for First Timers
Free web hosts are great for the penny pinching website owner or those who are new to or just learning about building a web site. Some free hosts cater specifically to new users, or “newbies” as they like to call very inexperienced webmasters, with easy to use features and design tools. Free web hosts for newbies make knowing programming languages, like HTML, unnecessary with WYSIWYG easy to use site builders.
FREE is Fast!
Many free web hosts supply online site builders or website design templates so users don’t even need to use design software like Dreamweaver, GoLive, or Microsoft FrontPage to build and design a website. Web based file managers and FTP upload tools help you make your website live in a matter of minutes.
Just Enough Space to Get By
Free web hosts provide just enough web storage space, bandwidth transfer, and features for the common user to get started. After a while though, website owners will want a little more out of their provider. But, free hosting is a decent place to start. Here are a couple you can try, DreamStation.com, 20m Free Web Space, and StormLoader.com.
