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Rackspace review

November 22, 2007

I have had a hosting account with rackspace.com for two years now and there is one thing I can confirm: Their customer support is truly fanatic. Each and every time I asked the support team about an issue, the response was not only fast – It was helpful. In the past I have hosted my web sites with various other web hosting companies and one should never underestimate how unfriendly and incompetent a web host can be. No longer am I victim to bad support and I will never go back to these hosts just for the sake of saving a few dollars per month. How many hosting companies do you know that offer to refund 5% of your monthly bill for each and every half hour your server is down? They truly live up to their promise of being fanatically dedicated to support. What I like best is that my account manager calls me up from time to time in order to see whether things are working smoothly and provides me with improvement suggestions for my business. One time I messed up some of the config files of my server and started to panic – By calling up the support center they were able to sort out the issue within minutes. Experiences such as this one are the ones that leave a lasting and positive impression on me.

It is true that their pricing is a bit more expensive than the competition but I firmly believe in the motto that you get what you are paying for. Given the friendliness and knowledge of the staff I am more than willing to spend a bit more to receive the attention I crave from a web hosting company.

In case you are currently looking for a web host, I strongly suggest that you give rackspace.com a try. I have had nothing but good experiences and do recommend this host to every one that is in need of a company that sells peace of mind.

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Hosted at rackspace.com? Had previous experiences of the company? Post a comment on your experiences below!

Dedicated Hosting Services

October 20, 2007

There are many web hosting companies that provide cheap dedicated server web hosting. If you are not satisfied with your current shared web hosting account because of reasons like high traffic or lack of control over the server, you may consider buying a dedicated server. This way, you will not only get good website performance but also complete control over your website.

When you buy a shared web hosting package, the web hosting company will create your account and place your website on a shared server. This server may be hosting thousands of websites and the resources get shared among these websites. This is done to reduce the cost of web hosting and for this reason, it is possible to get shared web hosting for as little as $10 a month.

Shared web hosting has many drawbacks. For example, the same IP address is shared by many websites. While there is no concrete proof that websites on shared IP addresses do not perform well in search engines, there are other issues like email spamming that need to be given consideration. Another drawback with shared hosting is that some websites may use too many server resources and cause your site to be sluggish. These drawbacks are eliminated in dedicated hosting.

Dedicated server web hosting usually costs about $100-400 per month. However, there are some hosts which can offer dedicated servers for as low as $50 per month. In addition to the server itself, other add-ons may have to be purchased separately. For example, cPanel license costs more. Additionally, additional IP addresses may also have to be purchased. Dedicated servers usually need more attention as there are many factors like software patching, monitoring, etc that need to be given attention.

If you are running large websites that get huge amounts of traffic, a dedicated web server is an absolute must. However, if you are running smaller websites with less traffic, usually a shared account or at most a reseller account should suffice. However, if you still want to try your hand at dedicated servers, we recommend you to search for a reliable web hosting company that offers cheap dedicated server web hosting.

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Cheap dedicated web hosting directory

October 18, 2007

This page is about web hosting companies that provide cheap dedicated web hosting. I intend to list these companies in the form of a general web directory. I would be very glad to know your opinions and suggestions about this mini cheap dedicated web hosting directory. Please add any hosts that have not been mentioned here or leave suggestions for further improvement.

Cheap dedicated web hosting directory:

www.apollohosting.com (Plans start from $99.95)
www.leaseweb.com (Plans start from 39 Euros)
www.lunarpages.com (Plans start from $99)
www.serverpronto.com (Plans start as low as $29.95)
www.startlogic.com (Plans start from $99)
www.xlhost.com (Plans start from $69 onwards)

This list is not complete! I will add more after researching about them.

There are certain points you should take into consideration before choosing cheap dedicated web hosting. Always check the details completely and ensure that there are no hidden costs. If something is dead cheap, there is a reason behind it. Many of these web hosts may charge additional amounts for server reboot, trouble tickets, support etc. We would recommend you to avoid those hosts, as these may prove to more costlier than the hosting package itself.

If you have smaller websites with small amounts of traffic, we would recommend you a shared hosting account or a reseller account at most. Running a dedicated server needs experience and technical expertise. Usually, these may be taken care of by the web hosting staff. However, these services are costly and you may have to pay additional amounts of money. For the same amount as a dedicated server, you will be able to get about 3-5 reseller accounts. And if you host your sites at different web hosts, the problem of downtime can be eliminated to large extent. You cannot expect all the web hosts to go down at the same time! Keeping the eggs in different baskets is good idea when it comes to web hosting.

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