So, why did I pick valueweb? First off, I went to microsoft's home page to find a hosting provider that would support front page 2002. The microsoft list provided links to each company's home page, and I studied them all thoroughly. I narrowed the field down easily to four or five of the companies based solely on the appearance and ease of their web site. I figured if I am going to be making a web site using their service, theirs should at least be easy to use and eye pleasing. After I had narrowed the field, I looked closely at price, the options each host provided, and the quality of customer support. Two aspects of the valueweb service appealed to me, and ultimately led me to choose their hosting service over the others. The price, which included a 90-day free trial , included setup fees, and there was no contract; the service is month-to-month. Secondly, the customer service/tech support calls you . All that you do is enter your phone number onto their "contact us" screen and a representative calls you immediately . This service is 24/7 for technical support, and 9am - 10pm for sales and customer service.

Quality of Service and Technical Support
Aside from never having to listen to a boring set of menu options, when all you want to do is talk with a real person, the technical support team has a perfect record with me. Every problem -- from big to little -- has been solved quickly and easily on their dollar because they called me. There is no waiting around for the phone to ring, either; they call right when you place your request. (You can, of course, request they call you at a specific time, though.)
The only problem I've ever had with valueweb came about because I use frontpage 2002. For some reason this software package has problems, and many web hosts have encountered trouble with its features. At first this annoyed me, because I selected valueweb specifically because of its ability to support frontpage 2002. I realized, however, that it really isn't valueweb's fault that they've encountered problems with the software, and was content to design my site using the regular version of frontpage. Valueweb promised me they would call or e-mail me when they've sorted out the frontpage 2002 problems. Then, I will be able to add more exciting things to my site. Hey, speaking of my site, you should go visit it. Why? Well, no one else visits it. It's neato (Hey, I made it), and ... well, I'm a really nice guy, too. That address is www.sellingyourselfshort.com ;)

So, What Kind of Nerdy Services Does Valueweb Offer?
Valueweb offers standard hosting, commerce hosting, merchant hosting, professional hosting, and sharepoint hosting. I use the standard hosting for several reasons: it's cheap (19.95 per month), and I am not selling anything, nor do I own any sort of business. I just made my web site for fun. Therefore, the standard hosting is really all I need. In fact, it is much more than I need. They've provided me with services that I cannot even begin to understand, much less decide if I need them or not. The stuff I actually know about, though, is the following: I have 20 mailboxes ... so many in fact, that I made up a bunch of e-mail names for myself. If you went to my site you'd see that. How creative of me -- each time I said "e-mail me" I put a different address; it's kind of geeky yet funny at the same time. Well, at least I think so. I also get 150 MB of disk space and 10 GB of data transfer. I don't really need to worry too much about using up all of that unless cnn.com all of a sudden starts redirecting to my site.

Oh, oh, and they back up your stuff every day, just in case ... well, I don't know what could happen, but something might. I wonder if they can prevent me from screwing up my site with those daily backups. Other standard features include a control panel, where you can be saddened by the dearth of people visiting your site.

I do not like to talk about features whose purpose I know little, so I will only briefly list the other features that Valueweb offers in its standard hosting package. I have no idea what most of these are, but perhaps you will understand and begin to drool ... or you might even say "Hey wait a second. What about the __ ." Anyway, here are the other features the service offers: "Your own cgi-bin directory, CGI script library, Server Side Includes, SSL Secure Server, Miva Script, Python, PHP.

The Main Point
Valueweb is the best hosting service that I've found. It is risk free, with a 30-day money back guarantee. In fact, I've been using the service for a few months, but still have not paid a dime on account of that 90-day free trial I received. If you are just beginning to design your own web site, or absolutely abhor the web host that is currently ripping you off and in return giving you terrible service, try Valueweb!

Thanks for reading my opinion!

Recommended:
Yes

Monthly fees (US$): 19.95