[TriLUG] RE: recommendations for virtual hosting

[Michael Mueller]

Thank you for all of the recommendations.   I am comfortable with
virtual hosting based on all the comments.

The most surprising comment was the negative Mindspring
recommendation.  I too have had reason to lower my regard for
Mindspring ever since the Earthlink takeover.  I almost got ripped
off on my DSL connection.  They surprised me by granting my wishes
at the last minute (got a $99 rebate for the DSL modem).  I
threatened to go to the Attorney General with deceptive advertising
charges.  I also emailed Gary Betty (CEO) who actually resonded (or
maybe it was his secretary who prints his email :-D).  The
Mindspring $20/mn for 10MB is a rip.   (Big != Better).

There was a favorable recommendation for cphosting.com which seems
to be located in India.  That comment readjusted my thinking to a
more global scale.

I think for an on-line brochure for a small business in larval
stages, rates of $2-$5/mn are quite reasonable.

It also appears that having advertised phone support is no guarantee
that problems will be resolved quickly or to your satisfaction.
Seeing a Unix/Linux advertisement is a good endorsement in my
opinion (see cphosting who advertises RedHat)

I checked out CIHost.com based on the very negative recommendation.
The first blurb my eyes fell on was "insanely low prices" :-D.
Their marketing hype is way over the top compared to competitors.
Possible rule: service is inversely proportional to marketing hype.

One tool that I found is located at http://www.webhostdir.com/.  It
helps by allowing quick comparison of plans - and there are many.
We should all be accustomed to that from years of exposure to
wireline long distance plans.  I am disappointed that the web hosts
are not offering a pair of walkie-talkies to switch to their
service.

I am investigating www.cphosting.com and
http://www.averdata.com/host.htm because of their rock bottom
pricing, Unix/Linux affliliation, marketing hype control, and gut
feeling.  I have launched "test" requests for response to their
support@ email addresses.  The timer is ticking.  The benchmark to
beat is domains.yahoo.com response time of 12+ hours.

Mike