how [many] hosts have you used?

[James]

ok someone brought this up in the other pool i started so i thought i would start this one.

how [many] hosts did you use (personal or reseller) before you settled with one host, or for the webhosts out there before you got to one that gave decent suport before you got your own dedi?

[allan]

My first website, sociology.net, was originally hosted at school -- then I graduated and had to get my own hosting, which I did at TIAC, in 1995. I moved from TIAC to another company (don't even remember their name now) who went out of business without letting anyone know. For the next several years, I hosted the site out of my house, off a dial up line. Then when Roseanne and I started the business we hosted a lot of sites out of the UUNET/MAE Dulles data centers. After we sold the business we colocated with a local company until the server died. Now, I have VDS's with Fluid Hosting, Vilitas, and an NT server with RackMY.

[MMiz]

Ive used the following Free Hosts:

Xoom, GeoCities, Tripod, and AOL's Hometown

Here are my paid hosts in the order used, the ones with stars are accounts I maintain:
DreamHost
HostIdea
ValuableHost
VenturesOnline
Cyberwings
AffordableHost
EARHost
Linkstream.net *
PriorityColo *
RippleHost *

Lots of hosts :)

[no1v2]

I've used three paid hosts - ImageLinkUSA for a single domain web hosting account, and Webreseller & Fastservers for dedicated servers. I am currently only renting on dedicated server, which is from Webreseller. I decided not to count Tripod in my vote.

[suppleSupport]

My first website was with Geocities in '96.

I was hosted on a friend's domain in '98 & '99. He used Addr.com and PHPWebHosting.com.

Then I moved to Below10host (for about 8 months), then Myacen (less than 2), then finally to my own servers (1 year++).

:D

[Jan]

Free:
www.tripod.com
www.geocities.com

Paid:
www.addr.com
www.worldzonepro.com
www.enhancedhost.com (current)

The free ones are still running, but all linking back to my domain names now.

The paid ones, no problems with any of them :cool:

[StLHosting]

I have AOL i use their stuff, but I been on AOL for 10 plus years, and their quota is only 2 megs but I got my 20 megs still from when I used to work for them I still use that for image hosting still to this day but my first ever host was TerriaNet or something close to that. Hostrocket, netcrater, and I gave up on it and got my own servers ;)

[Robert]

My first was with Geocities. I had one of those super long addresses like www.geocities.com/heaven/9501/park505/2934 AHH i couldn't take it!

Than I started using AOL but wanted php,cgi and what not. So I used vr9.com than port5.com, than back to vr9.com than back to port5.com and finally started my own!

[jbiz718]

Since it seems to me that I have been doing this for along time, I have used way to many providers.

Here are some of them

CIhost, I-interactive, who became Aperian, who became ForthStage, and I do not know who they are now. Handy Hosting, AffordableColo, Webreseller, Servercentral, Wizards Hosting, Freestyle Hosting, who became Insider Hosting, Rackfast, Vortech Hosting, and possibly others whom I can not remember.

[thebyp2]

i have used a number, i owned a free host at one point which dragged me into the dedicated world very quickly.

don't take this the wrong way but it's many not meny :)

[no1v2]

Have you guys left hosts more often because they weren't providing a good service, or because you simply didn't need the hosting anymore? In my case it was the latter both times. Fastservers was very good, and while ImageLinkUSA wasn't anything to write home about, for the price I was paying I more than got my money's worth.

[Jan]

Originally posted by no1v2:
Have you guys left hosts more often because they weren't providing a good service, or because you simply didn't need the hosting anymore?
Good question! :) I knew absolutely nothing about paid hosts, so I signed up for the first one I was made aware of. Luckily it was a wise choice and after a few intitial hiccups I was with them for a year. Prior to the being up, I realised I wasn't able to pay another year in advanced for two accounts, so I started looking around elsewhere. WZP at that time would have saved me half what it would have cost to renew two domains. I was a lot wiser by then and aware of many good hosts, so I started checking lots out. I asked lots of questions of WZP and they answered simply for my addled brain :p: So that was my choice and I didn't regret it.

Around the time it was getting close to renew again, they had a lot of intermittent downtime, I kept hoping it would get sorted out, but my sites are important to me and 1000s of others, so I started asking questions of Gary regarding his hosting. And there I am now :) I felt more than a bit guilty jumping ship, as I got on so well with everyone there, but life has to go on.

[beley]

Back before we decided to offer hosting, we hosted our clients' sites on at least 5 different hosts' servers and were always dissapointed with uptime, support, customer service, or something. We went with the big guys and small too...

The main reason we left hosts was for downtime, although all the other factors were weighed as well. We finally just decided to do it ourselves. If I mess up I can handle admitting that to a client but I hate admitting I'm wrong when it's not my fault... and that happened all to often with other hosts.

[markblair]

I've used the following hosting companies:

HostingPlans.com -- left due to extremely poor service and support.
Saturn Services -- left after finding a "better" offer.
ReadyHosting -- sorry I found this "better" offer, left after three weeks.
Site5 -- left only because at the time, I couldn't afford their plans.
Saturn Services -- tried a second time, this time their quality degraded.
GearHost -- left after being disappointed over many promises never kept.
Dot5Hosting -- first choice as reseller, very disappointed lately with service and support.

OKIHost -- signed up as reseller. I think I finally found the "one".

[101sales]

I've used only 1

cwshost.com Corporate Web Solutions.

They were horrible to say the least.

After that experience i've only ever hosted myself. :D

That was way back in 1998 by the way when 10mb of data transfer cost as much as a dedicated server with 400GB cost today.

Talk about "inflation":rolleyes:

[MMiz]

Originally posted by DigiCrime:

I have AOL i use their stuff, but I been on AOL for 10 plus years, and their quota is only 2 megs but I got my 20 megs still from when I used to work for them I still use that for image hosting still to this day but my first ever host was TerriaNet or something close to that. Hostrocket, netcrater, and I gave up on it and got my own servers ;)

Hey there,

We go waaay waaay waaay back to the TnT days. You probably dont remember me though :) I too got the 20 megs when I "Took an active role" in AOL ;) ;)

Nice to see you here :)

-Matt

[vito]

Miditech.com - was my first host for my first business site
Dreamhost.com - My first reseller account - I realized I didn't like their pricing
McHost - Had to leave as I was losing customers due to poor uptime
UKName.net - Godd for first month, then support was non-existent
Prioritycolo.com - Been with them for 8 months now - I couldn't be happier... :)

So that makes it, what, 5?

Vito

[jbiz718]

I think as a whole the best solution is get a nice server for yourself and simply colo it.

[mtgm]

The only (paid) host I have used is Think Host (http://www.thinkhost.com/). I have used countless free hosting providers, however.

[Operator]

I used three before starting my own private company (not xAvia):
Mxhub.com <-- bad
SplashHost.com <-- good
ChatIRCircuit.com <-- the ceo doesn't even know how to SSH?!

[RADiSTAR]

Here's my host breakdown for my main domain, timechange.com

1997 - 1999 ProWebSite.com - left because prices were high
1999 - 2000 Addr.com - left because service was good for 6 months - then it plummeted
2000 - 2001 3DWizards.com - left because their backbone provider in FL was not as good as I needed
2001 - 2002 Aletia.com - left when JaguarPC bought them up & relocated the servers to Central US
2002 - 2002 MeHost.com - left because support was flaky
2002 - today LightningServers.com - staying because everything works the way it should be :)

[FindSP.com]

Let's see, it all started with Geocities, afterwards Tripod, afterwards Crystaltech.com, Innerhost.com, Securewebs.com - and we're pretty much sticking to our latest choice :) those guys are amazing.. and no we're not associated with them in any way :)