Server recommendations please

[guscat]

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[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]We need a Windows VPS or Dedicated server hosting which includes .NET 2.0 and unlimited bandwidth, with PLESK control panel and root access to the server.[/FONT]

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[FONT=&quot]We currently use webfusion and they are awful - our site has gone down several times in peak trading hours today - just not acceptable! - We have used fasthosts before – just as bad![/FONT]

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[FONT=&quot]Can anyone PLEASE help us find a reliable and efficient company?[/FONT]


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[BrecklandGroup]

Rapidswitch do a very good deal on Dedicated Servers which ive been using for a VoIP softswitch with no issues at all. It is limited to 5000 GB inclusive bandwidth though.

Most comapnies should be able to provide a decent level of service though, it sounds like you have been incredibly unlucky.

 

[aoteg]

Yes, web fusion are not recommend, i have a friend working there and
most of the employees are recent graduate.

For solid uk hosting try

telecitygroup com
veloxserv co uk
rackspace co uk
kcom com

or for US hosting
jvds com
tier3 com
softlayer com <------ YOU WOULD GET VERY GOOD BANDWIDTH

 

[Clinton]

[FONT=&quot]unlimited bandwidth,[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]
Always make sure you know what the limits are to this "unlimited" bandwidth.
[/FONT]

 

[stugster]

You also need someone to manage this server.

 

[bwglaw]

I recommend http://www.csnewmedia.co.uk - they are members on here

 

[Dwebs-Ltd]

[FONT=&quot]We need a Windows VPS or Dedicated server hosting which includes .NET 2.0 and unlimited bandwidth, with PLESK control panel and root access to the server.[/FONT]


[FONT=&quot]We currently use webfusion and they are awful - our site has gone down several times in peak trading hours today - just not acceptable! - We have used fasthosts before – just as bad![/FONT]


[FONT=&quot]Can anyone PLEASE help us find a reliable and efficient company?[/FONT]

There is no such thing as unlimited.

What sort spec are you looking for?
Available budget?

 

[cinddy]

Find some reliable supplier who can provide you this thing.. On you may search any Computer related directory on the internet that may help you in this regards... Good Luck

 

[webhostuk]

[FONT=&quot]
[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]We need a Windows VPS or Dedicated server hosting which includes .NET 2.0 and unlimited bandwidth, with PLESK control panel and root access to the server.[/FONT]


[FONT=&quot]We currently use webfusion and they are awful - our site has gone down several times in peak trading hours today - just not acceptable! - We have used fasthosts before – just as bad![/FONT]


[FONT=&quot]Can anyone PLEASE help us find a reliable and efficient company?[/FONT]

Hello,

Please check out : http://www.webhosting.uk.net/windows_dedicated.html We offer fully managed server with 24/7/365 monitoring and support.

PM me if you wish to know anymore details or you can also contact our sales representative from our website.

 

[KM-Tiger]

We offer fully managed server with 24/7/365 monitoring and support.

If this website is now "business critical" then the level of support you need is higher than you might get from "cheap" hosting.

Note the 'monitoring'. That means the hosts will know there is a problem (and probably fix it) before you or your users are aware.

 

[internetspaceships]

Yes, web fusion are not recommend, i have a friend working there and
most of the employees are recent graduate.

For solid uk hosting try

telecitygroup com
veloxserv co uk
rackspace co uk
kcom com

or for US hosting
jvds com
tier3 com
softlayer com <------ YOU WOULD GET VERY GOOD BANDWIDTH

I'm actually gonna stick up for Webfusion here, because I also know people who work there and some of the experience in the people there is far in excess of "recent graduates."

As someone pointed out in a different thread, there are multiple reasons for a VPS node becoming unstable, not just hardware so things need to be looked at thoroughly, and yes if you want "real" hosting then a budget package is probably something you will want to avoid. You do tend to get what you pay for.

Incidentally we supply more than one of that list you mentioned with server/routing hardware so we do have a bit of an inside track on how they are operating

Regards

 

[guscat]

My website had a launch on Sunday and since then has been up and down (90% down yesterday). I logeed a service call at 9.50pm last night and stayed up 4 hours waiting for them to call me (after all they offer 24/7 support) and as of 8am they still hadn't called

ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTING SERVICE WEBFUSION!!

What's the point of offering 24/7 service if not enough staff are on duty!!!

I called in this morning to be told they run skeleton staff in the evenings!!!

Unbelievable, if it was my business and hundreds of sites were down I would have an emergency procedure that includes bringing more staff on to deal with the crisis. I hope many other customers walk as there is a lot of competition out there and like in nature its survival of the fittest....

 

[internetspaceships]

You seem understandably vexed by this.

You have gone for an enterprise type hosting package as opposed to a cheap and cheerful one correct?

 

[guscat]

It certainly wansnt cheap and cheerful, but it was shared. Now looking at many options for dedicated server as dont want this to happen again.

It seems Heart is the company most people are recommending me - Anyone had experience of these guys?

 

[internetspaceships]

I can fully appreciate the pain this has caused, I've been there myself believe me!

You might want to factor in to the equation that if this website is so important (and I can see WHY it its and agree wholeheartedly) that maybe taking a lower shared package in the first place might have been the wrong thing to do from a mission critical perspective.

As such along with the other quotes you get, try your current provider as well if they offer such a package as the levels of service agreement are FAR higher on the correct type of package for a mission critical business platform.

I'm just playing Devil's advocat here btw, as I've been where you are before and had to reassess the package I needed.

Regards

Jon

 

[guscat]

Thanks Jon...Yes although I had been advised by several knowledgeable people that as a new website VPS should have met my needs, but a dedicated server I think is the way to go now I have been bitten and hard!

This is where it gets interesting......

I spoke to webfusion who said they would give me a £50 discount for not walking and choosing them for a dedicated server which would be more reliable....I said yes (for ease and speed more than anything although I was still spitting feathers)

I then get a call from their sales team offering to do a dedicated server for the same price as VPS!! I was v impressed, then I asked if this was in regards to my order I had already placed. He put me on hold and then said oh sorry - I have called the wrong Rachel (and he couldnt offer me that deal!) He had meant to call a Rachel from another company

I was livid - He clearly had meant to call me to retain my business, hadnt checked to see if I had already ordered a dedicated server and cocked up. They now refuse to honour this deal that 'had been meant for another rachel in another company)

SOOOOOOO POOR! I'm out of there even if they now offer it for nothing...

 

[guscat]

[FONT=&quot]Does anyone know if a dedicated 10Mb connection to the internet, is better than 100Mb shared? I get the advantage of dedicated connection in that it will unaffected by other peoples traffic, but doesnt sound much if we have hundreds of people using the site at a time!
[/FONT]

 

[internetspaceships]

It depends whether you want to be phoning up in a week and asking why your site is running slow, to be told that everyone on your shared bandwidth is using it to full capacity....

You've got to make a business decision here based upon either KNOWING you have your dedicated bandwith OR possibly having 10Mb but not being assured of it.

The question is, which situation do you prefer, bearing in mind your recent experiences. Do you want to be be in a "what if.." scenario?

 

[EastCoastInteractive]

You need to know more about the dedicated server than purely its port speed.

I see a lot of cheap dedicated servers being offered for not much more than a virtualised solution, but have no raid (multiple drives for reliability) or domestic quality hard drives (low spindle speed but also have lower MTBF than enterprise level drives), low memory or a weak cpu.

If a provider is talking about dedicated servers on shared 100Mbit port (as opposed to VPS's on a shared port which is common) then I'd be wary as this strikes me as a real low-ball corner cutting measure.

If you remain with a virtualised solution and are on LAMP I'd avoid OpenVZ based solutions and go with a Xen based provider, OpenVZ tends to be the domain of cheap and cheerful oversellers, Xen is a lot more reliable.

 

[Jumpnetworks]

It certainly wansnt cheap and cheerful, but it was shared. Now looking at many options for dedicated server as dont want this to happen again.

It seems Heart is the company most people are recommending me - Anyone had experience of these guys?

Do not use heart I have for the last 2 years, bad support, they wont allow custom installs of programes such as Mailman

Not good

 

[DotNetWebs]

... they wont allow custom installs of programes such as Mailman ...

On a dedicated???

Regards

Dotty

 

[Jumpnetworks]

Yes, the wont allow much customisation, I looked into alot of options.

Im am now possible looking at UK2.net

 

[astutiumRob]

Yes, the wont allow much customisation

they provide "sort-of-managed servers", so no, they dont allow you to do much with them beyond hosting your website, as they dont want the support calls.

if a dedicated 10Mb connection to the internet, is better than 100Mb shared

yes, no and maybe - shared wth how many people ? what technology are they using to measure and throttle it ? do you ever need to peak at higher than 10Mb/s ? which datacentre, what server supplier, what bandwidth ? there's no way to give a correct answer ...

are

i dont think they offer dedicated servers but good attempt at dropping your affiliate link in ...

 

[EitexLeeds]

Tagadab are very good. We have just moved our servers there! We get personal service and technical expertise, and the prices are good.

The server includes Plesk if you want it.

 

[Britnett Website Services]

We also use RapidSwitch and they have kept the server up and steady for over a year. Worth talking with.
Paul.

 

[Tomasd]

Try midlandcomputers.com They seem to offer all sorts of options. We've used them for over 5 years and they've proven very reliable.

 

[PrismTechWales]

I am assuming you want managed dedicated servers?

If it was just a dedi and you had the technical skills then poundhost have proven very reliable and cost effective for us.

Prism Technology Wales Ltd | We're on Twitter PrismTechWales
IT Support Cardiff | Web Design & Development Cardiff | SEO, PPC, Online Marketing Cardiff | Software Development Cardiff

 

[SneakSMS]

eukhost.com are brilliant, and also members on here

 

[amar.singh]

Hi, Guscat.

I would recommend 1and1.com. I run a 20000 member forum along with few other high traffic sites. We have been on 1and1 cloud dedicated server and its simpy great. Costs around $75 (friend of mine paid registered from america) and i maintain it.

So far i have been making use of php, mysql, asp.net 2 and .net 3.5 and mssql for my sites. Its a windows 2008 box and hardware can be configured can be whenever you need to. You can add more ram or remove existing ram, add more processors etc. I remotly connect to our server to do all administration through remote desktop connections.

goto the 1and1 dot com site and look at the dynamic cloud product. I cant post direct links as its my first post on this forum.

Also their support is great. Phone connects under a minute and queries are answered very quickly.

 

[craiga1971]

Thanks Jon...Yes although I had been advised by several knowledgeable people that as a new website VPS should have met my needs, but a dedicated server I think is the way to go now I have been bitten and hard!

This is where it gets interesting......

I spoke to webfusion who said they would give me a £50 discount for not walking and choosing them for a dedicated server which would be more reliable....I said yes (for ease and speed more than anything although I was still spitting feathers)

I then get a call from their sales team offering to do a dedicated server for the same price as VPS!! I was v impressed, then I asked if this was in regards to my order I had already placed. He put me on hold and then said oh sorry - I have called the wrong Rachel (and he couldnt offer me that deal!) He had meant to call a Rachel from another company

I was livid - He clearly had meant to call me to retain my business, hadnt checked to see if I had already ordered a dedicated server and cocked up. They now refuse to honour this deal that 'had been meant for another rachel in another company)

SOOOOOOO POOR! I'm out of there even if they now offer it for nothing...

Any update? Just wondering what they have done (if anything!) to retain you as a customer.

Craig

 

[guscat]

Webfusion have been a joke. I eventually went with heart internet after many recommendations and so far so good.

I have waited 2 weeks for a refund from webfusion, had been told twice the money had been paid, and the 3rd time I chased was told no money had been paid. But horah! have my refund now after about 10 calls!!

They made no attempt to retain my business at all - and must be losing so many customers as until recently I understand there were still problems (that has gone on for weeks, with sites going down due to their 'unstable' platform)

I even sent them a direct msg on twitter and they gave me no response. It seems like they couldnt care less....

Well Im better off out of it, no doubt other suckers have been attracted by their slick marketing as they look really good on paper....

 

[guscat]

Oh and for the record I have had no issues on the deicated server from heart unlike the earlier post and I can install anything I want it appears....

 

[internetspaceships]

I've got to say this.

No matter how upset you are, how would you feel if someone was on a public forum slagging your company off and calling you names?

Would you get very upset? Legal maybe? You need to be careful that you don't cross the line between having a really good moan (which you seem MORE than entitled to) and comments that leave you open to law suits.

Just because a company is big, they don't automatically become fair game.

Your details are all over these posts, you need to make sure you don't leave yourself open.

Stick to the facts and keep the emotional slanging out of it.

 

[PhilipDixon]

Please contact me via pm. We are a small hosting company based in Nottingham. We are incredibly friendly and flexible and our business model is to provide the most cost effective and directly tailored solutions to your needs.