Can anyone recommend the really good web hosts..

I'm trying to find a new host, but there seems to be a lot of BS on the web. I was looking at one (startlogic), they have lots of high praise & reviews all over the place...24/7 phone support...blah...blah, but when I try to call tech support (test calls), I can't ever get through. When I ping their address, it times out with all the data lost. I figure they must be paying to get all the great reviews, or the review sites are total bullshit.

I don't know what ads or reviews to believe at this point, and I would appreciate if anyone can give me recommendations, or even a place to go where I can trust their recommendations. I really want a host that has 24/7 tech support by phone.

DU seems to be a good place to get the real story on stuff, so hopefully someone on this forum can help me to bypass all the BS hypes and scams and find a good host with great tech support.

Thanks!

Oh well....;(

I like to just call in for help, and not have to write an email explaining whatever issue I need to resolve... The folks at Liquidweb usually answer right away and have been very helpful. Their website is www.liquidweb.com . I hope you find what you need!

www.crystaltech.com

After years of poor experience with hosting companies, I came to expect crappy service, but Crystaltech has been wonderful. I lease several dedicated webservers through them, and the customer support and service has been top-notch. I often don't have time to sit on the phone for 30 minutes waiting for a customer service "expert", so it was important that I have good email support, and Crystaltech has been very very good at that. My usual wait for help is less than half-an-hour, and when I order new product their sales team usually has me setup within less than 1 business day.

Crystaltech is a bit more expensive than some hosting companies, but they definitely make up for it. I think you can get a dedicated Linux server for about $70/month or a Windows dedicated server for about $85/month. Their shared plans start at about 8-10 dollars per month, and have worked well for several of my clients. I've found that Crystaltech crams far less domains onto a single server than other companies.

Hope this helps. :hi:

but I'd recommend The Planet if you have a decent budget. They're top-notch outfit.

On a tighter budget I'd recommend Sago Networks. They're very good but their uptime is slightly less than that of The Planet. One other problem is that their IP range is listed in some very old email blacklists. I ran into this working with a school district that used an email blacklist from the late 90's. Which raises another good point. Whoever you choose, ask them for an IP so you can query the blacklists and make sure they're not a shady hosting company.

Hope that helps!

If you need at least a whole machine for your website then definitely go with them. However for my own personal sites I don't need a whole machine. So shared hosting is good for you.

I've had a couple of different hosts and was price sensitive a few years ago. Got burned with a couple of duds but I've been now with Site 5 for the last two and a half years. Site 5 link: http://www.site5.com/in.php?id=7119 . Incidentally, Site 5 are moving all their business to The Planet (I haven't been moved yet), so it'll ultimately be their servers and services but managed bu Site 5 people.

Mark.

they don't have all the "design your own site" tools or the other bells & whistles that the more consumer-oriented hosting companies do, but they're competitively priced and rock-solid.

Redstone

I love them, personally. You can register a domain name for 1 year, and get 2 months economy hosting, for $10.14 After that, your hosting is only $3.99/mo and you can "pay as you go" so you don't have to pay a lot up front for a whole year's worth of hosting.

I have one business associate who needs a basic web hosting company for several websites which simply post information about services.

Another associate needs something that can accomodate a DU or craigslist-type setup. Forums for discussion but more than the basic phpBB forum setup can provide.

Has phpBB added web hosting and site development to their offerings by any chance?

Thanks!

Check your PM.

I principally host the sites I create (mostly stores and database-driven sites), and welcome general hosting accounts, particularly from progressives.

Plenty of experience installing message boards, an excellent shopping cart and other canned applications, as well as creating custom stuff.

I'm not going to compete with Godaddy and their cheap pricing but I have a large number of folks who have chosen to stay with me for many years because I provide reliable service, very rapid response to e-mail, and when you call for support you are talking to the system admin as well as an experienced programmer.

Greg

Their customer service sucks, their supposed techs don't know their ass from a hole in the ground. Did I mention how bad they suck? :rant:

Every website that I take over the development of is moved off of Godaddy, if it is hosted there. You can't decent email account sizes without additional cost, you can't add features without additional costs, and their tech support, if you can get it, is horrible.

I use Bluehost.com for all of my sites, and I have always been very pleased. Tech support is fast and not outsourced. I needed to increase the size of some email accounts on 1 site, I sent an email, they had it done in less then 12 hours, and with no additional fees.

My goal is to start hosting my sites myself, but that is a future project.

We're looking at changing our hosting provider, and since we'd prefer to use a progressive company if possible, I thought that one with a name like bluehost was worth looking at. However, after reading the personal entries on the CEO's blog, I don't think we'll be going with them. It's too bad, because the plans looked fairly good.

a question on setup. Unfortunately, they seem to have recently done a lot of renaming of servers, etc., so a lot of the instructions in their support articles isn't quite up to date, but the response I got via email was quick and professional.

And they say they support progressive causes, so that was the clincher for me.

http://www.thinkhost.com/

Which I am not. I've been using computers since the 1980s, but I'm no programmer.

Not only that, but that tech support I thought was so good? I take it back. Ask them to clarify something in those support articles and they'll tell you that they're written for advanced users. Ask them for an example of a type of program they recommend and they'll tell you they can't be expected to know every program available on the internet.

Progressive? Maybe.

A good hosting company?

Not for me, no.

Would I recommend them?

HELL, no.

I've been with them 2 years come this January and my site has only been down 1x. I've always had great interactions with their tech help (only used it twice though).

http://www.hostican.com

freakin awesome in every way.