The age old question

[Helen]

Hello all!
It's time to ask the age old question:
What do you look for in host?
Well, the question is rather general, just looking for everybodies individual ansvers

[thebyp2]

Originally Posted by Helen

Hello all!
It's time to ask the age old question:
What do you look for in host?
Well, the question is rather general, just looking for everybodies individual ansvers

How longs a peice of string!

Fairly basic stuff really. Being a host myself though i suppose i would apply the same rules as i apply to myself.

Honesty, reliabilty and the aim to provide the appropriate support. What i hate esp is the hosts who lack any kind of common sense.

[Administrator]

I always look for a host with a good track record, ie - good uptime and security aware.

I tend to prefer to use techy types rather than the big companies.

For me - good uptime compiled with a fast support response time are the prime factors.
After that i look at the bandwidth costs.. and options on the server.

The host i currently use is very good and i have had support issues answered within minutes at all hours of the day and night. There is nothing worse than sending a request for support and to wait days for an answer.

[Helen]

Originally posted by administrator:
I tend to prefer to use techy types rather than the big companies.

Techy types - what do you mean? And could i know why are they prefectable for you?

[Administrator]

A lot of large companies use good equipment but have a different kind of staff... techy types are run by computer addicts who are obsessed with problem solving and tend to be more dedicated and more knowledgable in my experience. They seem to run things better.

Its hard to explain. Put it this way... some of the large companies require a degree and standard qualifications before they employ someone.
While some of the techy's may not have this... they have a lot of personal experience and sometimes do a better job. The techys do what they do for the love of it rather than their wage.

One of the most sucessful hosting companies in the uk was started by a 15 year old in his bedroom.. no qualifications... he liked to play around with servers and experiment. Now his company is worth millions. I remembered reading about him in Internet Magazine a couple of years ago. I would class him as a techy.

I find that techy types like to go the extra mile as far as support is concerned and often will do things other hosts would not. They rise to a challenge and like to prove themselves to the customer. They would spend hours trying to fix a certain problem, rather than give up. They don't like to loose.

My hosting company for example are like this. I had major problems upgrading to vb 3 recently. Even the devolopers of vb did not understand what was causing the error. On the upgrade script it kept crashing out at step 37. The server had everything installed as it should be and other people were using vb3 on it with no problem. Vb support could not help me... i contacted my host and asked them if anything on the server might cause this. After several days they got back to me with the problem fixed. They could not find the cause of the problem but got round it by backing up my database and downloading all the different versions of vb. They then upgraded each one seperately and this stopped the bug. Problem fixed.
It had taken them several days to do this but they did it and got round the problem. There are not many hosts that would ever go that far for a customer.
This is what i mean by techy types.

Does that make any sense?

[DanPhx]

Peronally, I want a host that is:

A) Creative enough to think they *can* offer a new feature / service to their customers.

B) Imaginative enough to think *maybe* web and email are not the *only* things they can "host"

C) Hungry enough to want to have an advantage over their competition

D) Aggressive enough to try something new without waiting for the crowd to tell them it's a good thing.


But, that's just me.
I've invented a new kind of content.
A new kind of hosting.
A way to make new money from existing "web host" clients
and a whole new class of customers who would never have a website,
but they will get this... and they will pay for the software (from me)
and the service (from the host).

Anyone know a host who fits any of those descriptions?

:-))

Dan