| Posted by BramDumolin, 01-15-2005, 01:39 PM | | Hi,
I'm in the middle of deciding wether to go with varhosting or site5.
Site5 is using IDE disks and no RAID.
Varhosting is charging extra for private DNS.
I don't know yet if they are using SCSI and/or RAID.
I've read a lot of posts about these two hosters and a lot about other too but I'm still undecided wether I'm doing the right thing or not.
At the moment I have my own machine which is giving me a lot of freedom but also a lot of hassle for maintenance.
The primary reason I want to give up my own machine is uptime/maintenance and support.
I don't want to bother anymore with keeping the machine up and running all the time. I want to get customers put them somewhere nicely and let the automated billing do its job.
There are some personal projects I'm working on and those can coexist with my customers.
Can I get some opinions on the two above hosters and if there are others I should consider?
And on any of the others things I said.
Thanks a lot,
Bram
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| Posted by Companyideas, 01-15-2005, 03:00 PM | | I'm looking at the VARhosting site and can't see anything about extra charges for Personal nameservers? Where did you find this out, as I'm considering using them as well.
Thanks
David
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| Posted by Slitheryimp, 01-15-2005, 03:08 PM | | I'm running a couple of pilots on VARhosting at the moment, and, so far I am very pleased with their service.
The private/personal DNS servers was a bit confusing for me, have a look at their Forums for an explanation
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| Posted by niyogi, 01-15-2005, 03:13 PM | | Hi David and Bram:
You will get ns1.yourdomain.com and ns2.yourdomain.com with any of our hosting plans so if you're wondering about that, put your thoughts to rest. There aren't any extra charges. :-)
We try to make the distinction between "personal" and "private" name servers.
Personal name servers are where you are using two shared IP addresses on the server for your ns1.yourdomain.com and ns2.yourdomain.com IP addresses. In the unlikely event that somebody did a reverse look-up on your IP address, it would not be *completely* anonymous.
For those that want that extra layer of anonymity, private label/name servers give actually three IP addresses (for $5/month) - one for each of your name servers and one for your main site. Reverse lookup is set up on your IP addresses so that it is even more difficult for your customers to know that you are reselling. :-)
As for RAID/SCSI, we currently do not have these options available though our servers are high-specced.
Take care guys.
Roj
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| Posted by freak, 01-15-2005, 10:27 PM | | I have been using varhositng for about a week now, support is fast and I am yet to catch live chat offline...
Server is responsive enough, and server load it generally low, even though WHM shows I am on a 2.4 Celeron with 1 GB ram...
However, their pricing seemed to have dropped even lower after I signed up. Now what concerns me is how long they can keep it going?
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| Posted by Mark L, 01-15-2005, 10:41 PM | | I was going to move to Site5, but they do not offer 'account transfer' in WHM. :/
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| Posted by BramDumolin, 01-15-2005, 10:51 PM | | Just a quicky.
I signed up with varhosting, everything looks cool.
The usual, figuring out cpanel and whm (my first time ).
Got a couple of support questions, and they are fast!
Things are looking good for the moment so let's keep it up.
I'll post a longer review here when I can vouch for them.
Bram
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| Posted by vegasblaze, 01-16-2005, 10:31 AM | | I just left Surpass for Varhosting.net -- and let me tell ya, the SPEED is unbelievable!!! My site is cruising now. No more slow mail servers. Surpass used to be a good hosting company -- but over the last 6 weeks, their uptime is barely above 85% from my server. If you don't believe me, then go to their boards and see for yourself at how many complaints they have been having.
Anyway, they moved me at my request to a new server 1.5 weeks ago on Surpass, but again, the same old problems. Their data center at Hostdime "bytes" the big one! (Ha!) Too unreliable and slow. I did like it there because of their staff and friendly community -- but I'm in business to make money, not friends with my host! (Ha!)
Varhosting is located at "The Planet" -- so you know for sure you're going to get some high octane speed and quality uptime! The Planet has a great data center and a great reputation!!!
All-n-all, I signed up yesterday -- and now my sites are already resolved in under 24 hours! Their customer service is top-notch right now and seems to be helpful and friendly.
So far, the only problem I have had is the whole "private" name server issue. I paid for it but so far it isn't working. I did a reverse lookup on two different places and both places gave me "tripod" and "the planet" as the main hosts. Support is looking into it, so I am not sure what they will say. Regardless, I honestly don't care. If it doesn't work, then I am sure they will reimburse me for the name server labels (only $7). Besides, I would rather take speed any day over anonymity.
I will post again in 4 weeks and let everybody know how good they are and how thngs are going. But so far, I just can't believe the speed! WOW!!!
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| Posted by markjut, 01-16-2005, 12:31 PM | | They charge for nameservers?
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| Posted by vegasblaze, 01-16-2005, 12:46 PM | | Yes, as these are "private" nameservers -- not "personal" name servers. Personal nameservers are free (like ns1.yourdomain.com) -- however, if you look them up on a reverse dns lookup, you'll find out who the reseller is hooked up with.
Private nameservers are anonymous and they "hide" this info, so it always looks like you're the main provider. Well, at least that is what they're suppose to do. I don't know of any hosting company that includes this service for FREE at varhosting's price range. Sheesh, I was paying nearly $15 more a month at Surpass and they only gave me personal nameservers.
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| Posted by niyogi, 01-16-2005, 02:48 PM | | Hey vegasblaze:
If I can decipher who you are (which I believe I can :-)), I'll see that you're taken care of if you haven't been already.
:-P
Roj
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| Posted by coume, 01-24-2005, 06:51 PM | | I am in deep sh*t since I just got an email from differently.net and they stop business... and being in Guatemala, I have 2 days to choose a new hosting! I have to choose between varhosting and site5, since both seems to answer my needs, but I have trouble to find their uptime reports... any experience?
Thxs in advance, any answer will be greatly appreciated!
Ludo
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| Posted by BramDumolin, 01-24-2005, 07:05 PM | | re,
Overall I'm happy with varhosting.
They are quick to respond to tickets and I'm taking it a bit slowly.
Good things:
Problems are quickly resolved.
Machine is not very loaded.
Link is fast.
Things which are improving:
Apache was down for a couple of minutes.
Twice they had "router maintenance" in the datacenter which caused some downtime (half an hour or so).
cpanel crashed twice but it has been stable for the last couple of days.
So as I say, I'm still happy.
Whenever there is a problem, they tend to resolve it ASAP.
My clientexec install took a day or two but that was it.
Then it was set up, and now I'm in the middle of adapting it to my setup.
I have the impression that people at support are learning quite fast every day.
I'll give it a couple of months and see if the uptime is causing me trouble or not.
Bram
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| Posted by Taylor, 01-24-2005, 08:05 PM | | We don't offer account transfer as we would need to give out root access, which we don't do.
We are, however, introducing a transfer service for our reseller clients. This will go into effect later this week.
Also, Ludo, we post our uptime reports on our site under our support section. We pride ourselves on these and leave them open to public view as we have nothing to hide.
Thanks again.
Please feel free to let us know if you have any questions
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| Posted by coume, 01-24-2005, 08:10 PM | | Taylor,
I already spoke with a sales guy and I sent an email to sales@ , so hopefully by tomorrow, I will be able to make a decision
But you have a big drawback that I realize late... you don't accept paypal as payment method
Ludo
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| Posted by DogoTek, 01-24-2005, 11:02 PM | | PayPal can be a great asset !
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| Posted by coume, 01-25-2005, 08:02 PM | | k so even if they don't use paypal as payment method I finally decided to go with them... (edit: by them I mean site5.com)
Why:
- Daily and weekly backups
- Long time in business and seems very reliable
- and the most important, I'd rather pay a bit more and have a great uptime. I really like the fact that they use Websitepulse and post the results very clearly... I'm sure that they are not bullshiting me
So I will see how it goes, and I will post my review within 5-6 months! And hopefully the uptime will be really great! If it is I will move my high traffic website on this reseller account too
And who knows within next year, they might allow paypal payment ehehe
Cheers,
Ludo
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| Posted by Taylor, 01-25-2005, 08:06 PM | | Thanks for the update, and even more-so for the business Ludo. Glad everyone could be of help
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| Posted by Matt Lightner, 01-26-2005, 02:32 AM | | Lubox,
I'm very happy to har that you finally settled on Site5! I think you will be very pleased with the service you receive.
To clear up another issue addressed in this thread, Site5 will begin accepting payment via PayPal as soon as we switch our billing over to BillAdmin 4 (see my signature). Our current billing system doesn't easily integrate with PayPal, which is why we don't currently accept it as a form of payment. The new version of BillAdmin, however, will allow us to accept PayPay very easily.
Hope that clears matters up, and thanks again for choosing Site5!
Matt
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| Posted by coume, 01-26-2005, 01:11 PM | | Great news Matt!
Since I paid for one year, I should be able if the service is good to renew my account with paypal in one year! eheh
Ludo
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| Posted by Trip, 02-04-2005, 02:56 PM | | Hi Matt,
So, according to your sig, Site5 should be able to accept PayPal by the end of February? Or am I misunderstanding you? If not, could you offer up an estimate of when BillAdmin 4 will be integrated? Thanks!
Trip
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| Posted by Matt Lightner, 02-04-2005, 03:00 PM | | Hi Trip,
That's the tentative plan, yeah. It looks like it will be pushed back a little bit, but Site5 will definitely be the first host to implement BillAdmin 4 once it's ready. You can follow development at forums.billadmin.com if you're interested!
Matt
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| Posted by Trip, 02-04-2005, 03:02 PM | | Thanks Matt! Good luck with getting up asap!
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| Posted by kelvinklay, 02-04-2005, 04:53 PM | | i am thinking to signup on varhosting for BR2 which looks good to me.
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| Posted by top25hosting, 02-05-2005, 08:51 PM | | I don't want to seem as though I am bashing by any means, but I have posted this in another place and wanted to post here in the event that varhosting wants to reply and maybe John can get some quicker responses......
A buddy of mine has been trying to contact Varhosting to get some questions answered and emails to sales@ take about 12+ hours to get answered and the only person we seem to reach on live chat is Sam and he is limited at what he can say. He has directed John to email and thus the 12+ wait begins.
Today when trying to get someone on chat it just sits and says trying to connect and when he tried to call their tech number he had to leave a message with no return call as of yet...
So I don't know...
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| Posted by Trip, 02-05-2005, 08:54 PM | | Do a search on varhosting and some scarry stuff turns up about past companies, fradulent behavior, etc. You can never be too careful. :/
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| Posted by niyogi, 02-05-2005, 11:06 PM | | Hi top25hosting:
As a matter of fact, I've sent a few e-mails back to John (who I think you are referring to) about how we handle end-user support. Did he not receive these?
I would not want to turn down any interested prospects so I do my best to get to every e-mail/sales ticket as fast as possible. I don't yet allow my techs to handle sales chats too much via live chat or e-mail because I want to *try* at best to be accomodating to resellers' individual needs. As such, the delayed reply may be disappointing to some but I assure you that support is much quicker.
That being said, I did receive one PM from you here - which I'm in the process of replying to as well.
Trip, scarry I'm not sure of - but scary I believe you mean. Fradulent behavior is simply not true - although you could say that our other divisions were careless in how we handled billing data (with a half-baked in-house billing system). Since then, we are now using commercial billing systems that are much more secure in nature.
You're right that you can never be too careful - but then chances are you won't necessarily go or get anywhere. FFT
Roj
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| Posted by rois, 02-06-2005, 02:43 AM | | Have you started offering account transfer yet? if so, would they be free? if not when will you start offering this service?
Thanks
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| Posted by Matt Lightner, 02-06-2005, 03:23 AM | | Yes, this service is now being offered to customers who require our assistance. The first 15 accounts are done free of charge, and then subsequent accounts are $2 each.
Matt
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| Posted by niyogi, 02-06-2005, 08:45 AM | | I personally think that accounts should be transferred free of cost for resellers. It's the least a provider could do to gain the long-term loyalty from brand new customers.
Roj
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| Posted by countrytyme, 02-06-2005, 12:55 PM | | We have been with Varhosting for about 3 weeks now. They transferred all accounts, their support has been quick. Speed is much faster than what we had before. Roj answered all my pre-sales questions promptly.
I have vegasblaze to thank for this move. I too am an ex-Surpass person and without his review of Surpass, I would probably still be pulling my hair out, trying to decide where to move to.
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| Posted by webair-gene, 02-06-2005, 01:53 PM | | It's good to know that you've found a reliable source for hosting.
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| Posted by ldcdc, 02-06-2005, 02:26 PM | | Still, there's nothing wrong with a host charging for a service they're providing.
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| Posted by niyogi, 02-07-2005, 08:02 AM | | Dan:
You are right - it was just a personal opinion of mine really that I was giving out. It also could be considered as advice. Either way, I do understand that it can be cumbersome and quite a task to transfer accounts for customers - but it usually is a one-time deal. :-)
Roj
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| Posted by Matt Lightner, 02-07-2005, 01:17 PM | | This is much more feasible for smaller providers. If a company is getting 10+ new resellers per day and each reseller requires 25 accounts moved, that very quickly adds up and can even require a full time employee just to handle the moving of accounts.
Matt
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| Posted by niyogi, 02-08-2005, 12:41 AM | | Matt:
You're right! And I think it's worth it! ;-)
Roj
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| Posted by Moweb, 02-08-2005, 06:48 PM | | I was looking at Site5. What sort of turned me off was that their costs are above-average (and no, I am not one looking for "unlimited bandwith" or top service for 2 bucks/month..) and that there is no refund if for any reason, when you sign up for 1 year, you would cancel ay mid-term. That I don't like at all, because it means that even if they screw up (not saying they would) you'd be stuck.
For example 2 years ago I was using Webmasters.com, and although I signed up for 1 year, when I cancelled after 5 months they refunded me the difference in about 4 days.
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| Posted by Matt Lightner, 02-08-2005, 07:53 PM | | Hi Moweb,
To quell your concerns, if you find that we are somehow failing to live up to our promised service levels, you are welcome to cancel your account and we will issue you a refund for the unused portion of your contract. This is not an "official" policy (you won't find it in the terms), however we're a customer-centric organization and we always strive to find an agreeable solution to every problem.
Hope that clarifies things!
Matt
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| Posted by bluzman32, 02-13-2005, 07:28 PM | | So is there any new update on varhosting? And why was niyogi
banned?
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| Posted by ebird, 02-17-2005, 03:24 AM | | is he banned? I see he is online right now.
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| Posted by niyogi, 02-17-2005, 03:30 AM | | Customer-centricity is important in hosting - and I think it's fundamentally important that a relationship between the hosting provider and the customer is established for the very beginning. This essentially enforces responsibility and accountability.
Roj
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| Posted by senior, 02-17-2005, 03:51 AM | | http://www.whois.sc/varhosting.net
Created: 2004-11-07
Expires: 2005-11-07
http://www.whois.sc/Site5.com
Created: 1999-03-17
Expires: 2012-03-17
I care about my business.. I signed up with Site5, they are in business since 1999, and they intend to be in business till 2012
varhosting is just a few month old... and they didn't decide whether they will continue in the field or not...
I am a site5 client now
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| Posted by niyogi, 02-17-2005, 04:07 AM | | Senior:
That's a good point - never thought of it that way. Investing $90 for 9 extra years really does a lot. :-)
Roj
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| Posted by senior, 02-17-2005, 04:44 AM | | if you bought the future, you can never buy the history
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| Posted by niyogi, 02-17-2005, 04:47 AM | | Tis true senior - I don't deny that at all. But then with fresh new companies come fresh new ideas and an attitude to serving the few customers that join them.
Roj
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| Posted by velawan, 02-17-2005, 11:43 AM | | I think nothing is wrong going with a new company. Of course they are untested but again you may get the best new deal. It is not only in hosting but any business for that matter. I myself starting anew. I wouldnt be starting if I think every customer is going to say that I am new and they are not going to do business with me. I already have 3 customers are ready to business with eventhough I havent even started yet. I dont know but I dont think being new is a sole criteria to be used for doing business with. All of you, go back when you started your business! You were new then.
Just my opinion
Kind regards
velawan
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| Posted by Taylor, 02-17-2005, 08:29 PM | | Of course, everyone was new at one point or another. It's great to hear you're doing well getting started.
I think he was primarily just stating that it's more reasurring when a company has been around longer, to receive more customer feedback, history, etc.
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| Posted by Jorgen, 02-19-2005, 08:49 AM | | I have moved to varhosting.net , and I am glad I did! Very fast support. Blasting speed in the US and to Europa too!
And all for a price that rocks!
palmspringscam.com
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| Posted by berlin, 02-26-2005, 10:23 PM | | Your charge $5 for anonymous nameservers. I wonder if Site5.com charges also. Resellerzoom offers this feature for free.
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| Posted by coume, 02-26-2005, 11:00 PM | | Site5.com are indeed more expensive than varhosting... but since I am with them I am very very happy! and they are really really fast to answer tickets (at least for reseller account) usually 5 to 20min the longest which was a bitmore tricky 1h05... I never had such fast support before!!
I will move in middle my high traffic forum and see if I'm still happy with them!
Ludo
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| Posted by Matt Lightner, 02-26-2005, 11:06 PM | | Berlin,
To answer your question, private nameservers are included free on all but our smallest reseller plan.
Best of luck,
Matt
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| Posted by niyogi, 02-27-2005, 12:53 AM | | Berlin:
To answer your question, private name servers are $5/month add-ons although they are not necessary to have ns1.yourdomain.com and ns2.yourdomain.com. Some resellers like this feature for complete anonymity - while others don't mind saving a few dollars per month with a cheaper solution that essentially "works".
I think you'll find many hosting companies switching to private name servers being more expensive as ARIN gets even more strict with IP delegation policies. When this happens, getting them will require more work which means an inflation in the price as well. Just some foresight based on discussions with a few dedicated server providers and their views on IP allocation/justification.
Roj
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| Posted by ThinkSupport, 02-27-2005, 04:13 PM | | Hey Roj... I guess you use whm/cpanel servers ... and whm has the feature to share the nameservers IP so that other clients who wish to have private nameservers do not need to go exclusively for a dedicated IP ?
well dont you think $5/month is too much for sharing those IP's ?
well if you are assigning your clients dedicated ip's for their pvt nameservers then the price is ok.. but if they are the shared ones.. then i personally think they are way too high..
anyway its your hosting company and your price structure ..
just wondering
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| Posted by velawan, 02-28-2005, 01:01 AM | | I believe the $5 is for dedicated IP. They do provide free private nameservers for their clients.
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| Posted by niyogi, 02-28-2005, 01:39 AM | | Velawan is correct. $5 are for two dedicated IPs for your nameservers with Reverse DNS set up on them. To clarify, all plans come with ns1 and ns2.yourdomain.com but the $5/month gives each name server it's own IP address (not shared).
So, ThinkSupport, the $5 charge is for just the opposite of what you mentioned.
Roj
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| Posted by ThinkSupport, 02-28-2005, 05:11 AM | | Hmmm ... thats what I thought ..! If you are assigning dedicated IP with reverse dns then its cool !
Thanks Roj, for clearing my doubt...!
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| Posted by macuser, 02-28-2005, 11:01 AM | | I will intersting in Site5.com too if:
1- Help me to transfer all my accounts
2- Pay by Paypal
When those things are, may be I move to them.
;-)
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| Posted by ThinkSupport, 02-28-2005, 04:20 PM | | In their billing method, I can see the payment options to be CC an check! They have live chat support and telephone support available. You can check their support to know more !
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| Posted by Taylor, 02-28-2005, 04:40 PM | | Thanks for the interest in our services.
1: We do have a transfer program now in place.
2: We are hoping to have this available within the upcoming months once our new billing solution is in pace (Matt!)
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| Posted by Caviar, 03-29-2005, 02:26 PM | | which one is faster for connecting, site5/varhosting?
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| Posted by Aurelian, 03-29-2005, 03:40 PM | | Personally i dunno anything about site5. So about them all i can say is... nothing . Right now im using varhosting and they are great. I dont encourage you not to go to site5, all im saying is i like varhosting. Didnt work with others before so dunno for sure how they are, but varhosting fit my needs. Ill visit site5 right now.
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| Posted by ACcomunica, 03-29-2005, 04:03 PM | | Site5 is good, you can go with them and you'll be fine... Paypal would be good! I like their new site (pink!).
Taylor, Site5 was founded in 1998 but your signature says 1999. Can you explain?
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| Posted by fzlatan, 03-30-2005, 05:57 AM | | I think we are comparing apples and oranges here.
Start up company vs 5 years in business company.
$4.95 vs $17.99
There is a big difference there and room for both to grow.
I have an accuount with varhosting and they are very good. However being that they are very new it is only normal to take it easy.
I have spoken several times with Roj and I think he is very good businessman in addition to being well educated. I think they will be arround for some time.
What is my point? Cover your bases and help the new guy grow it will cost you only $4.95 to test their service.
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| Posted by velawan, 03-30-2005, 06:14 AM | | I am with varhosting, they have been good. They also offer money back guarantee and i am sure they will keep their word on that as roj is very professional.
Pricing is very important to me (assuming service level is status quo). My personal opinion is that varhosting's price is reasonable for reseller hosting. Even if you are already established for a long time, I dont think the price should go beyond varhosting's price as space and bandwidth price are getting cheaper.
Of course there is a question of premium for brand 'being estalished' but why pay more when you get the same quality?
Infact if you really notice, the pricing of hosting nowdays are being based on bandwidth and not storage (even though most are doing without even knowing it). Storage is becoming very cheap. There will come a time when hosting account will be sold on pure bandwidth basis and not storage.
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| Posted by ldcdc, 03-30-2005, 09:25 AM | | All hosts will take storage into account when pricing their hosting packages.
Not as cheap as some hosts make it seem.
You mean unlimited/unmetered space?
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| Posted by velawan, 03-30-2005, 12:04 PM | | True agreed and thats what it seems but I find storage cost are coming to so minimal that for me, the true pricing reflects better on Bandwidth. I did some calculation what I find is that the weightage is is on the very high side for Bandwidth.
- yes unlimited space....though it may not sound possible for now without overselling.....this is for the near future.
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| Posted by bensie, 03-30-2005, 01:58 PM | | I just switched from my own dedicated (didn't want to have to manage/support/update anymore and couldn't stand CalPOP anymore) to a reseller plan at Site5 and I have to say their service is fantastic. Tech support responds immediately and they are incredibly helpful. Service is fast and reliable and it appears that they don't oversell their servers at all.
My only complaint is that their pricing tiers are a little off. Usually as the plans get more expensive you get more bang for your buck. Their 13GB storage plan is $44.99 (paid annually) and their 30GB plan is $89.99 (paid annually -- it's $100 / month if you pay month-to-month) .. basically double the storage for double the price. Knock off ten bucks or so and it makes a lot more sense. I'd probably just order another package so I get put on more than one server or go to another provider rather than upgrade my package at Site5.
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| Posted by Taylor, 03-30-2005, 06:45 PM | | Site5 was started at the end of 1998. We got corporation papers and official start in 99
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| Posted by frobnitz, 03-30-2005, 07:11 PM | | Does Site5 allow adult content? I am thinking of switching but don't want to get blacklisted because someone on my server is hosting porn...
Thanks,
Frob
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| Posted by Taylor, 03-31-2005, 01:35 AM | | Frob,
Thanks for the interest. No, we don. Please feel free to direct any further questions about our services/company/etc. to our sales department.
Thanks again!
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