Several years ago I registered several domain names hoping to participate in the dot com boom. I thought to myself wouldn't it be neat to design some websites and put them on the internet. As often is the case things have not proceeded as quickly as I had hoped. Nonetheless I am still pursuing this.

Knowing that a server farm underneath the Eiger Mountain staffed by an elite force of supergeeks was not an option I began my search with the idea that before I could host my sites on my own servers I would host them with several different webhosts. The criteria for the webhosts selection were: (1) reasonably well rated on the various webhost review sites, (2) ownership of their own servers and networking equipment, (3) financial soundness, and (4) not a fly by night chicken coop operation. After conducting semi- rigorous research the three companies I selected were CI Host, Olm and Hostpro. Thinking I would eventually host a number of sites through them I signed up for each companies reseller plan. The combination of immediate serious problems experienced with CI Host and the horror stories about their infamous multi-day outage frightened me and I canceled my service with them. My funds ran low and I canceled OLM too (without giving them a fair chance). I would like to try hosting with them sometime in the future. The first and only site I have put on the web so far is www.drtekno.com. Hostpro (now Interland) was (is) the host.

A few words here about my networking-programming-design knowledge. I have very little formal training in any of the aforementioned fields. I have taken one webdesign course at the junior college level to learn Adobe Golive and have taught myself Macromedia Dreamweaver.

Although there were some initial problems getting my site up I was eventually able to. At the time it seemed there were some communication issues between sales, customer care and operations (there still seem to be).

I also had some horrible customer care experiences with the LA customer care group of Hostpro. I had some difficulty with the passwords for my site (could not log in). I had to communicate with some foul mouthed punk who new absolutely nothing about programming-networking-design. Eventually, after making enough waves, my problems were moved to the techs who were able to help me.

Since then my experience has been mostly positive.

Hostpro merged with Interland and the transition has not been seamless. Again things continue to be resolved as technical and billing problems arise and evolve.

After the first of the year 2002 I renewed my search for a second, third and fourth host. Until I can host my sites on my own servers I would like to divide my business between four different hosts (2 large hosts and 2 small hosts). I added two more criteria to my search for the 2,3, and 4th hosts: (5) awesome customer service (6) two of the three hosts must be smaller companies (5,000-20,000 sites maximum).

(Interland is currently the largest host for small and medium size businesses. I believe this has more negative than positive implications (consequences). Why am I concerned that big is bad in hosting? I think to myself does a company that has that many websites (1) have enough computer and networking power to handle all of the traffic? Probably not. (2) Do they have the technical and customer care staff to handle all of those clients when things go wrong? Probably not.In fact the only thing that impresses me about Interland's hosting of 400,000 sites is the hope(maybe futile) that the economies of scale will allow the company to keep prices super competitive.)


Back to my search for host numbers 1,2 and 3. I found a small host two months ago as well as another large host(Rackspace). My experience with the small host was not very good. I am not going to mention the name of the small host because I am going to try to host with them again and they did make a sincere effort to help me....maybe next time things will go better. What happened with the smaller host? I could not download the files from the remote server to my local drive. I told them I was using Dreamweaver and the network engineer (also the owner of the company and customer care department) acted like I was from Mars. I wanted to tell him that Dreamweaver controls 40% or more of the design market however could not bring myself to. His last words to me after a troubleshooting session were 'good luck'. I canceled service with them a week later.

After this experience my opinion of Interland improved. I decided to take another look at Interland's pricing. They currently have a neat promotion for resellers who transfer new websites. The promotion is 100 dollars for each site for six months of service. I decided to move three more sites to Interland last week and signed up for the least expensive plan(19.95). As a web reseller for them I receive 25 percent off (if I host 4 or more websites with them). Consequently I have to pay $45 per month for three websites. Multiply the $45 per month by six....this equals 270 dollars. I am receiving a 100 dollar check for each site I signed up with them. I am paying them 270 dollars for hosting the three new sites for six months....they are paying me 300 dollars. In other words I will be receiving free webhosting from them for the next six months.

I could not resist this offer and I do not believe they would be making it unless they were making a serious commitment to provide semi decent service. If they do not provide good service it will cost them not me. I will leave and it will not have cost me any money. If it costs me my sanity I will simply move my sites to another host.

The three sites I will have up soon are www.classicalhour.com, www.sunbuckles.com, and www.icewoman.com.

As I mentioned I have found the other large company (Rackspace)I am going to host with. My quest for good, small, webhosting companies number 1 and 2 continues.

Update June 10, 2002: Received 300 dollar rebates for three websites I signed up for on May 30. I was happy and surprised that rebates arrived so quickly.

Update June 17, 2002: Contacted Netsol (Versign) and had two of the three new sites (icewoman.com and classicalhour.com)dns (domain name servers)pointers set. Upon doing this I checked the urls. Interland has a default homepage set up for websites that have not been uploaded. The default home page has a few links. Nothing spectacular however better than a generic construction sign.

I proceeded to ftp in with Macromedia Dreamweaver and downloaded the entire site to my computer. I changed the index.html page (homepage) for icewoman.com and was able to upload without any problems.

There is an excellent help center called 'Customer Resources' that has instructions for setting up various areas and functions of a website. Included in this are synoptic how-to guides for ftp and the standard web editors (Dreamweaver, Golive, Frontpage, Netobjects and Drumbeat). I am finding the entire help center to be very helpful. Although it may not be of much use to a webmaster it is to a novice like myself.

I will update this as the websites I am hosting with Interland progress....









Recommended: Yes

Monthly fees (US$): 19.95
Hosted on Secure Server: Yes
Main focus of Web site: Publishing/Content