Who are you hosting with? Advice for a change of host

Currently I'm hosting with Parcom - a windows/IIS host that is reasonably well priced. They have most of the features I need, although just recently a large forum I have started getting "Service Unanavailable" messages and the host's only solution is for me to pay for a dedicated server (about $300US/month!). This is not an option and is really not necessary - I feel that Parcom have configured their servers incorrectly (application pool configuration or something) and this is why my site is getting the errors.

Anyway, I want to change and this time I wanna go with a Linux host. I've got my eyes on ixwebhosting's unlimited pro plan - and after contacting them, they've gauranteed that I would have no problems with my site on their servers (about 7K uniques/day with high database load). Their pricing seems really good and features are impressive - although there is no shell access, only a basic file manager.

So what are you all using for your hosts? What specific features do you think are a must from a host, what could you NOT do without?

I use fatnetworks.net and I'm 98% happy. They're good, but I'm sure better exists.

I've lately been looking into getting dedicated, and I've found one that comes highly recommended in hosting forums, dedicated starting around $90/mo: http://www.dedicatednow.com

We used Hostway for about eight years ourselves. Great support / services.

If you are on a Windows server running vBulletin or another PHP forum, I would move it over to a *NIX box just for ease of use.

7,000 hits a day is normal I would say averages out to about a four a minute.

The Service Unavailable message usually means the system needs to be cleared / rebooted. They might have too many users on that one server.

So anyone else? Come on guys, everyone's hosting with someone...

I know the owner of www.3800hosting.com He has helped me out alot with my sites and I am happy i use him. I have another site I am fixen to move over to him shortly.

I used to be on parcom and my site well basiucally same thing as you, I moved from host to host etc and all and then finally landed at www.gigabyteservers.com and got me a dedicated server, custom built it at their dedicated server page and got one for $99 a month. The server rocks. You can check out my site at www.coastercrazy.com check out the speed and all. I get tens of thousands of hits a day. Parcom was great and all when they stuck themselves with windows 2000, once they went 2003 it went down the hole imo. Has tons of space and features but what good is it if the servers cannot handle a little extra load. gigabyteservers.com is mainly nix hosting, shared hosting is all nix I believe but dedicated can go either way. Anyway, I recommend them highly.
http://www.gigabyteservers.com

Great, thanks for the advice. I've pretty much decided to go with chihost.com

They provide stacks of space and unlimited bandwidth and all that. Plus heaps of databases, SSH, etc etc. Good price, recommended on webhostingtalk.com and response to support queries is great so far (sent them 3 support requests and got replies within a hour each time).

I'll check out gigabyteservers and see what they offer.

Theres a few things to ask a hosting provider such as.

Do they oversell their hosting
Theres no such thing as unlimited bandwith, space etc ask them the true values.

True, and don't think so greatly of "unmetered" bandwidth either. There will probably still be some sort of restriction. I personally use LRHosting - but then uk hosting is probably not for you

I ended up going with chihost.com

The 'unlimited' bandwidth is actually 150gb/month - although if your site is a forum (or a stack of other caviets) then you get 100gb.

So far I've been impressed - with shell access I've been able to do much more by myself without having to email the host and ask them to do things.

And as a side note - I emailed Parcom with a support request 2 days ago and only just got a reply this morning. I'm convinced now that they're hopeless.

Im not with anyone right now. (Have my own)

Although due to me being cheap I have to say i recommend http://www.forumer.com for forums. Only been there a while. Seems quite good. BTW can someone tell me if there is anywhere that i can advertise my forum as the member count is quite low.

Ta, fartingman

blatant advertising is not allowed, but a link in your signature after 10 posts is allowed, but saying please visit my site etc is not

1 min i'll find the rules

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http://www.webforumz.com/introduce-y...membership.htm

please read, getting an infraction is not a good start

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K, cheers.

Just wanted to know.

Damn things move fast around here.

Yep

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Right i see it now.

Man my brain is gone at this time of night, cant see anything. Vision kinda blurry.

Goodnight

No, you are not allowed to advertise at all on these forums.
Paid advertising can be found here.

I host with site5 and can't fault them. I also host with easyspace who are ok

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