Crissic - Inexperienced And Careless Web Host: Part II
Nov 3, 2008
Today I'm back to encourage you to stay away from Crissic: I know the prices are tempting, but know that you will have no one on your side when a problem comes up. I finally closed my account with them after numerous major issues with my VPS.
I've had a simultaneous account with Slicehost for the past few months, just to see if paying the extra buck is worth while. Now I know it absolutely is. I'm paying double the price for half the resources with Slicehost, but their service is amazing and reliable, their support is stellar, and peace of mind that the server will stay up and running without load issues, memory or drive failures is worth every penny. The point of this post is not Slicehost though, back to Crissic.
When I signed up for Crissic, I knew that it was a relatively new web hosting startup, but I had no idea it was a one-man show. Yes it's probably possible for a single guy to run a small web hosting company--the problem, particularly in the case of Skylar, is that when something is beyond him, it isn't getting fixed.
A recent support incident occurred where I was suddenly unable to access my VPS via SSH or the console. I contacted support, here are some of his responses to my status inquiries: ....
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Jan 7, 2009
if you remember recently Crissic Solutions went offline. I was told by Skylar when he came back online i would receive a refund within 5-7 days.
He has yet again, unavailable everywhere i look, and guess what.... i still have no refund that was promised.
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Dec 25, 2008
FYI, the VPS'es on at least one Crissic node (beta?) are back up at this time. The VPS'es on another node (alpha?) are not up, and the control panel at alpha.crissic.com is not.
You might want to jump in and rescue your data if you need to and haven't done it yet.
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May 27, 2008
I thought I would take my time to post and talk about a company hosting VPS's and Dedis...
I was attracted to Crissic when a friend that knows about servers mentioned he had a discount code and they were very cheap.
I decided to try it out and bought 1 month of 128mb "small" VPS for $8.
This was going great once we had sorted out the Nameservers
I was in the process of setting up my domain ukhype.info, When i noticed a email claiming my VPS had been using too much power and had been shutdown. When I inquired, I was told I had installed a bruteforcer and was over using ram. The wierd thing being, I needed my domain to access FTP.
I wasnt sure how to link my domain to a IP, So I gave up for the day. Then I noticed another email claiming my VPS had been shutdown and My Package Canceled according to there TOS they can cancel when they want.
I then noticed Under the privacy act they are not allowed to look through my personal files (even though none exist)
They are in there TOS, not allowed to moniter what I do unless they notice harmful files exiting for entering my VPS...
I am very annoyed since im down my money and my VPS... *since it got shutdown within the first day*
I would go with VPSlink rather than these since they are 24.7 down with no support...
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Dec 29, 2008
I've had a VPS with Crissic for a few months. Every single month I have had multiple days of outages where I cannot access my VPS. The worst case was the past 7 days, I still cannot ssh into my vps, I was told 7 days ago by Skylar it was an "IP issue" and would be resolved in "a few hours"! I have left numerous emails, posted at least 4 help tickets but every help ticket is automatically closed within 24 hours by their ticket system before anyone even responds to the ticket! I even tried posting followups to a ticket but it still closed. As a last resort I called the 1-877 support number today and no one answers nor does it give me the ability to leave a message. This is ridiculous! I would rate the support an F at this point - absolutely horrible. And no one is available on their "Live Help" feature either. I have a 99.99% SLA so I better get a refund or I will file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau.
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May 14, 2008
First: Of course Crissic had some advantages as well, they were always nice, they let you do a lot, have a nice client area and so on. In fact, Crissic would be very good, they just need to change their servers or server provider to more reliable things.
I need a reliable hosting that servers doesnt have problems all day. I need to resell stuff and I need online websites to do that, as well as I need online websites to gain money from affiliate networks. Crissic cannot fulfill this, in less than 2 weeks since I am customer there were a lot of downtimes ranging from minutes to hours, there were hardware failures including an 7 days old backup (at least with 15% redeem), somehow an domain couldnt connect at all (I guess some nameserver or DNS error?) and now after I was awake and checked my websites the server does not seem to handle sessions anymore and produces errors on a few of my websites. This hosting ruins all my business and I cannot keep them doing that!
I am searching for reliable alternatives now but with a cheap price and good specifications like Crissic had. Here is exactly what I need:
* Reliable Hosting, NO Downtimes every day. NO Downtimes every 2nd day as well.
* Minimum Diskspace: 3 GB
* Minimum Traffic: 30+ GB
* UNLIMITED Add-On Domains. DNS entrys should be automatic and it MUST be free, had some hosters before that provided unlimited add-on domains but they charged 1$ for each add-on domain then.
* Unlimited FTP-Accounts
* 200+ subdomains
* 200+ e-mail accounts
* PHP4 / 5 + MySQL and GD Library
* Cron-Jobs
* ALL CPanel Functions like on Crissic (at least as much as possible, I need it)
* Price Range between 5-10$, but there should be better hosting packages available for 10-20$ - WITH Upgrade possibility
* No Contract, I do not want to get stuck for 24 month with an hoster
* Good Support is required!
* PayPal Payment possible
* Audio/Video + Flash/Shockwave support and/or if I have additional requirements like for an video hosting script, the hoster should be able to install it and not charge more than 5$ for it
* Money-back guarantee would be great since I do not want to be disappointed by hosters that promises everything but keep nothing
* DAILY Backups
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Oct 23, 2008
First of all, forgive me if I am posting this on the wrong section .
I am the owner of CyberSP.org, a really small service provider running on a2b2, and PROUD OF IT.
I had a deal with Skylar, the owner of Crissic.com, which I am not going to talk about it in this forums, but, all I can say, is that he offered me a 1 year 50gb backup account, (well, he didn't offer , it was our deal).
About 2 months using it, and it was running perfectly until then, I thought: ok, let's see how's the server going, and then, I made df -h and it shows: 3GB Available.
WHAT? 3 GB available on a BACKUPS SERVER? How's this possible!!!??
So, opened the first ticket regarding this, waited about 6 ~8 hours and he said (Skylar): We're working on the issue, bla bla bla.
Well, fine.
Some days later, it shows 158 GB Free.... Problem solved.
Now, some days later, I see that the backups was taking DAYS to do, haha! It's true, DAYS! (It was NOT a2b2 problem.)
So, logged in by SSH to the backups server (took me 5 minutes to log in!), and it was
SUPER slow, reaaaaaaally slow, downloaded a backup (at 200 kb/s xD) which I needed, and logged out.
Tried to contact Skylar on MSN, but he then log out some time later. (without answer)
Heh, I thought: well, this is a temporary problem, etc etc.
3 Days passed, yesterday I opened a ticket regarding that problem:
Dear Crissic,
The backup server seems to have issue for some days already.
It's more than slow, it's super slow.
This has been all day... the backup service was great, but it seems that last week problems arrived.
uptime
3:40AM up 136 days, 18:31, 1 user, load averages: 4.25, 5.27, 5.45
--
$ df -h
Filesystem Size Used Avail Capacity Mounted on
/dev/da1s1d 1.9T 1.8T 168G 92% /
---
So, let's see, load is high and this is super super slow, and there are some GB's free for backups, but... can we really use it? I mean you guys should just put some more drives.
Please fix this instability issue, as this is causing my server to don't make the backups, which is really really serious.
Regards
----------
Note: it was opened as CRITICAL! 20 Hours without answer... what a poor service.
Every service providers know that backups ARE URGENTLY.
About some minutes ago, received an email regarding my ticket, saying that I didn't have any action, so the ticket was closed(automated ones), bla bla bla, I replied to it saying: No answer from crissic on a critical ticket, at backups service??? <- Only to keep the ticket opened.
And then, tried to contact Skylar on MSN, until he log out, 2 minutes later .
The server doesn't even answer anymore :
I know that I didn't gave him money, but our deal was 1 year of free 50gb backup, so I deserve respect and to be treated as a loyal client, I don't even should say FREE, because it was paid, in another way.
I have all my bills at a2b2 PAID (anyone from their staff can confirm), I DO NOT owe anything, all I want is to have a good service, I'm a honest guy.
From a2b2, everything is perfect, from Crissic, this is horrible. Really... I don't have money at this moment to buy another backup account.
This serves to prove you, that maybe Skylar is not a good person as you thought so.
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Jun 29, 2008
I just saw two quite nice deal in the VPS offer forum with CheapVPS and Crissic.
They both around $15/month after discount with 512RAM and 20gb(Crissic's is 70gb) harddisk and 300gb+(CheapVPS is 600gb) bandwidth.
The harddisk space is more important to me at the moment but after a search in the forum I can't find any possitive feedback on Crissic, and both nice/bad feedback on CheapVPS. Seems more people are using CheapVPS.
I am wondering if anyone can help me to choose between them in terms of the reliability and stability of their server/service?
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Jul 4, 2008
Just 1 day,I feel so sad with them.I think the company is just 1 man running.I bought a small plan on 7.2,the price is good $6.99 for 256 RAM 30G Disk 160G bandwidth/m.Everything is good after they spent 7 hours to setup my vps,not bad.
I spent the whole days of 7.3 to rebuild my vps from centos to gentoo & update it,& the bad thing from this moment is begin.
everything is ok during the update time,but I forgot the my openvz server's kernel is 2.6.18,I updated my linux-headers to 2.6.25, it causes I can't fininshed emerge -e my sytem,so I reboot it,but it die & never running again,I do anything I can do,reboot in the HyperVM,& ssh to the console access,but nothing help.
so I submit a ticket to them,at last they just rebuild my vps back to centos,do nothing for me.I know it's the unmanaged service,& if the vps I can rescue it,I won't sumbit a ticket.
After that,I make a mistake,they don't have a refund for vps,but I request it,all right,no refund is ok.I say I'll make a review for my vps,but they sad I can't paste the ticket to the public space because of the TOS,if i do it,my vps will be terminated immediately.i don't care.I feel sad with them,so spent $6.99 to let everyone know the company & the unreaonable TOS,it worth
here is the ticket,I'll let you know: ....
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Dec 15, 2008
I'm a customer of crissic and now their server is down for about 40hours.
And Skylar is not responding again.
Anyone else having my problem?
What should I do?
Can anyone from LSN help me and restart his server? This time is much worse than Cpanel license being expired. At least at that time websites worked...
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Sep 19, 2008
I ordered a VPS from Crissic on 27th August, the details were sent in less than two hours. Skylar was really helpful over the Livesupport via Kayako, answering my questions patiently... I can be an arse at times but hey :p... Requested to chat on MSN and was given without any further questions asked.
VPS came in readily with everything installed. There are some hiccups with the VPS itself as yum wasnt working properly. Skylar and technicians took time out to solve it for me and diagnosing the problem and all. They managed to fix it and gave an explanation..
Up till today, I havent experienced any downtime with the VPS at all... well cept for 2-3days ago when LimestonesNetwork were having problem, other than that, there wasnt any problem or anything..
The support I have gotten from Crissic is amazing and quick. I would definitely recommend him to anybody. Following from what I have received from Crissic, I went along to order my second VPS and now I'm glad!
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May 28, 2009
I have a website that can be seen in a part of the world but not on the other. How can I troubleshoot this issue. Is there a web utility that can help me figure out what is the problem?
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Jul 8, 2008
Is security really that critical? If so, why are some of the largest software companies providing such a bad example for the rest of the industry? Why would someone want to target my website? Why is security often overlooked?
These are all common questions that arise on a daily basis within the online industry.
The rest of this article will provide some detailed answers, along with practical examples and true scenarios.
I've spoken with numerous hackers over the past short while. I can't count the number of times I've heard the line "Ignorant site owners deserve to be hacked". In my opinion, that's like claiming that cars without alarms deserve to be stolen, or homes without alarm systems deserve to be burglarized. It's not just wrong - it's illegal.
Security risks and vulnerabilities affect the entire online industry. When a single website is hacked, there are usually multiple other victims. This is most commonly seen with widely distributed software. A potential attacker has the ability to install the software on a test environment, locate the vulnerabilities, then attack random victims even before anyone else is aware of the potential exploits. Once a vulnerability is located, the attacker simply needs to search for other environments using the same software, and within minutes there are hundreds, often thousands of potential victims.
Typically, in the race to market, software providers are encouraged to release their products as soon as the applications are usable. Critical development procedures are often overlooked or intentionally bypassed. One such miss is an application vulnerability assessment. Although the product may be usable, the effects of a vulnerable application could be severe.
Sadly, nobody is "off limits" when it comes to hacking. Most hackers feel safe committing online crime, since the online industry has evolved much faster than the security industry. Many applications are not created with the intent to recognize hacking attempts. Some hackers view their actions as a competition - Who can attack the most valuable website? Who can exploit the most user databases? In many cases, these attacks are bragged about within the hacker's immediate network. The competitive nature of these hacking groups has become so severe, there have been reports of attacks between competing organizations.
You might ask, "If I use industry standards, won't my environment be secure?". The short answer: no, but it helps. Hackers are not restricted by industry standards. Most security companies only implement new standards once at least one victim is reported. This often gives hackers plenty of time to locate other vulnerable environments, and before long, the number of victims can increase rapidly. Hackers are some of the most innovative individuals within the online industry. The most logical way to combat them is to use similar methodology for security purposes.
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Oct 1, 2008
One of the most reliable & dependable webhosts around: Aussie Bob's Dotable is now a part of the UK2Group.
Read announcement:
[url]
The new plans unfortunately resemble that of a typical overselling host.
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Jun 4, 2007
I am having trouble finding a good sysadmin for my needs. Has anyone else been in a similar situation? Does anyone have any advice on how to find somebody like this?
SITUATION:
I am having trouble finding a reliable RH sysadmin. I have a handful of clustered HA setups for customers (6+ servers & load-balancers) and a number of single-server dedicated hosting customers. I do a lot of the work myself. The additional sysadmin usually only has a small amount of actual worked hours per month, dependent on new installs. But, they need to be reliable, available, and familiar with the complexities of the setups.
From what I have seen, some sort of server management company wouldn't be able to be familiar with the setups well enough to not regularly make errors or modify setups correctly due to the amount of clients they have.
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Aug 7, 2008
Should/home be its own partition when using r1soft, or can it be part of/?
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Jun 16, 2008
I have a small dns cluster with 4 servers, the problem is that when i want to update a dns registry one of them doesnt sync, i have to try like 6 or 8 times to get that server to sync with all the others, and im concern because the one who gets trouble to sync is my secondary dns server
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Mar 3, 2009
Is bandwidth going to be my most expensive cost if I open up a video hosting site? Is there a inexpensive alternative? Is there an inexpensive web host with low cost bandwidth allocation?
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Apr 29, 2009
I have similar problem that explained [url]
The detail of my problem is below:
Some people sent spoofing mails from our mail users sent to our user from Postfix/local that is listed in maillog like below:
Apr 29 16:57:02 ns1 postfix/local[3075]: EC2153565E3: to=<user-mydomain.com@ns1.mydns.com>, orig_to=<user@mydomain.com>, relay=local, delay=486, status=sent (delivered to command: /usr/bin/procmail-wrapper -o -a $DOMAIN -d $LOGNAME)
Bu i do not know how to prevent this people not to use my Postfix/local delivery part. How can i prevent this attack?
When i connect to my mail server to sent or receive my mail it look like
Apr 29 17:25:28 ns1 dovecot: pop3-login: Login: user=<user@mydomain.com>, method=PLAIN, rip=***.***.***.***, lip=***.***.***.***
....
Apr 29 17:25:55 ns1 dovecot: POP3(user@mydomain.com): Disconnected: Logged out top=0/0, retr=0/0, del=0/0, size=0....
But the attackers connect directly like below:
Apr 29 17:29:59 ns1 postfix/local[2456]: 3192E357FD9: to=<user-mydomain.com@ns1.mydns.com>, orig_to=<user@mydomain.com>, relay=local, delay=261, status=sent (delivered to command: /usr/bin/procmail-wrapper -o -a $DOMAIN -d $LOGNAME)
....
Apr 29 17:29:59 ns1 postfix/qmgr[2218]: 3192E357FD9: removed
How can the spammer connect to Postfix/local part? My mail server not open relay. i test it from internet.
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May 6, 2009
A few people have asked me to give feedback on my experience with VolumeDrive so I decided I will be posting a 3 part review on them:
Part 1 - initial impressions
Part 2 - three month review
Part 3 - one year review (hopefully)
-------------
When I first got in contact with VD, contact was slow: about an email a day. It was very annoying to say the least. However when VD realized that I was genuinely interested in purchasing a server, and not just a window shopper, contact was more frequent and acceptable.
After looking around and comparing, I ended up ordering the following server from VD for a whopping $105 per month:
Q6600
4 GB DDR2 800 RAM
500 GB HDD
10 Mbps dedicated unmetered
5 IP addresses
Plesk 30 domain
Full managed services
Well just at face value, I don't think anyone will argue with me when I say you cannot beat the price. Where else will you find that kind of server w/ full management for $105 a month?
In the ordering process there were a few forgivable annoyances:
1) VD does not have any sort of automated, order online system for their "good" deals. I had to order via email and manually pay from PayPal. I was, however, emailed an invoice confirming my purchase after I paid.
2) It took VD 2 hours to send me my order request after I said "I am ready to purchase". Now it was late at night, so they probably only had a skeleton staff on hand, so this is understandable; however this point is sort of related to the lack of an automated system point mentioned above.
So after I paid and all, I was told they were building me a new server and it would take 3 business days to arrive. I was bummed out upon hearing this but this was understandable and justifiable - if they don't have the parts on hand, they don't have the parts, no big deal. I did appreciate the fact that they were honest with me upfront instead of trying to con me into giving me a different server (like I have been hearing stories about with other hosts).
So I waited. I was told my server would be setup on Tuesday afternoon and it was. The actual time between order and setup was about 5 and a half days: 3 days for the parts to arrive + Saturday + Sunday + time to build the server.
On Tuesday I was informed that my server has a Q8200 instead of a Q6600. To me this was not a big deal so I didn't object but if you are going to order from VD and you want one specific CPU I would be very clear with them that you won't accept any alternative. What did make me chuckle, however, is the fact that I was told "I received a free upgrade" to Q8200. It made me chuckle because I don't consider it a "free upgrade" when I was offered a choice between the Q6600 and a Q8200 for the same price during the ordering process. However, as I already said, a Q6600 or Q8200 - it does not matter to me: both are very similar in performance anyway.
So since I got my server I have been busy setting it up so VD can secure it after I am finished migrating my website (which by the way they just did - I just got an email ).
During that time I have emailed VD a fair amount of times, sometimes asking for clarification and sometimes asking for assistance with a problem, and they have responded back in a more than acceptable time frame and manner.
The only one major problem I have had so far is that initially, and by initially I mean first ~12 hours, it seems the connection to my server was not all the best. Randomly pages would take a while to load; I was curious as to why this was happening so I did some pinging and saw packets were being lost sometimes. This problem seems to have been auto-corrected itself now and I am did email VD about it; hopefully if it happens again we can get it perma-fixed.
Final verdict: people say "you get what you pay for". I say "I got more than I paid for". Hope it continues this way.
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Dec 24, 2007
Are there any web designers/developers who offer hosting to their clients as part of their website creation package. I am toying with the idea of only creating websites for people who host with me. I currently have a colo server, but only use it for personal things. So I have no experience with the needs and demands of clients in regards to hosting. What are some of your experiences with hosting for clients? Is it worth it?
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Sep 27, 2007
Is it possible to extract part rars using unrar (or other programs) on centos4?
If so, how and what command to use?
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Apr 11, 2008
I'm configuring a website for a client who has moved their web hosting to downtownhost, but is keeping their email hosting with their current provider. They do not want to configure an MX entry on DTH to autoforward email back to their current provider because they don't want their email to pass through DTH.
In order to do this, do I keep the nameserver entries on the current provider the same, and configure an http redirect to point to DTH? Or is there something else I should configure on the current provider?
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May 21, 2009
I'm wondering if you can tell me something about your experience with a host/server in a different country or overseas.
My webpage will be mostly frequented by Australians.
What do you think is the advantage and the disadvantage of having a host in your own country and having one overseas?
I'm thinking about stability, traffic speed, peak hours in different time zones, customer service, ....
What are your experiences?
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Aug 3, 2008
I was with Blue Host and their support and service was pretty bad. Servers going down all the time, and chat support was terrible. Then I moved to Host Monster and received the same kind of service/support. I later then figured out that Blue Host and Host Monster is runned by the same people. For example, I opened up a tech support ticket with Host Monster and then they replied signing their signature with Blue Host. So I got the same service: terrible tech support and servers kept going down. Now I'm looking for a new web hosting. I a few people here gave Host Gator some good reviews. I hope Host Gator is not run be the same people that runs Blue Host and Host Monster.
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Jul 8, 2008
Does anyone have a preference for Host Excellence compared to Blue Host?
Do you think their basic offers are the same?
This is for just a couple of simple domains and sites to be hosted.
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May 27, 2008
with this being my first website goddady's website tonight or there blog site plan seem pretty good as I do not know how to build a professional looking website nor do I have a knowledge of HTML. Are there other hosts that offer better services such as these?
Also I would want to register with 1&1 as to register privately is free but with godaddy it costs around $15 and I've heard of godaddy stealing persons domains when they haven't even expired yet i.e. familyAlbum.com?
Is it allowed for instance to register my domain name with 1&1 and host my site with godaddy?
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Jun 16, 2008
If you had to chose either Host Gator or Hawk Host which would you go with and why? Don't bring any other hosts into consideration just compare these two. This would be for a standard website, forum, and a few downloads if it makes a difference...nothing too fancy.
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Dec 12, 2007
I have just made a personal website using photoshop, html, css and php. My site contains an index page, a gallery page with 8 photos, a contact page with a form and an extra page with some quotes. I am planning to use a paid host for the first time. Based on feedbacks from some of my sitepoint friends, I decided to go in for shared hosting. I thought of using Hostdogs.com as they have the option of a monthly billing cycle. I thought that I have the option of changing my host after a month if I am not happy with them. I have also read a lot about Hostgator.com. A lot of sitepoint members seem hooked to it.
1. Can anyone give an opinion as to which host I should go in for? Hostdogs also give a free domain. Is there any reason I should go in for Hostgator instead of Hostdogs?
2. One more question, I have heard that once I have a site running, I can earn money through the advertisements placed on it? How do I place advertisements on my site?
3. One last and very important question is whether it is right to go in for shared hosting at this point of time. I just read this
Quote:
When you look for a suitable host, be sure to check out the amount of bandwidth that will be available to your site. Even a site that doesn't require a great deal of data transfer per month could run slowly if you're hosted on a shared server; particularly if you are on the same server as a more popular or bandwidth-intensive site.
The more sites hosted on a server, the more likely they are to compete with each other for available resources, including bandwidth. This is why you may notice a reduction in server response times during busy periods, or during a sudden peak in traffic at a busier site on a server that you share.
This made me wonder whether I should go in for shared hosting. But then mine is a personal home page which may not have so much of traffic.
4. What does the paragraph below mean? How does one handle ones registration manually?
Self-Management (no cost)
Select this option if you prefer to handle your registration manually.Your web host can establish service with any Top-Level Domain (TLD), international or domestic.
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Dec 31, 2007
I will be setting up a site which uses ASP.NET 1.1. I know versions 3.0/3.5 are available, but they are not yet V2.0 compliant. Anyway thst is not the issue - just context.
Would like your advice as to whether it would be better to host this site with a company who looks as though they are specialising in ASP; such as DiscountASP, or Softsyhosting, or go with a general Windows hoster such as Steadfast, Fluidhosting, or 3Essentials?
I know nothing about ASP, so I don't know whether it is not at all neccessary to have a host specifically knowledgable about it, as I am unlikely to ever have problems with it, OR; I will most certainly have to address ASP issues sometime, so it would be essential to have support who really knows ASP.
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