Xeon On the Floor

Edit: It appears that I misunderstood the addional domain assignment process through MidPhase’s cPanel. The customer service team was not aware of my upgrade request because the system said that I didn’t need the particular upgrade I thought I had needed after clicking “Add More” domains. That said, after a few emails with the very helpful billing manager, I managed to figure out what I needed to do, and got it done just fine. Thanks go out to Jasmin for shedding some light on my own stupidity :neutral:
Why do some companies insist on making it difficult for customers to give them money?

For business days ago I put in a request for an upgrade with my host, MidPhase. I’m venturing into a few new areas and need greater control over my account and its resources. All in all, it will cost an extra $24.95 USD per year, not including any fees they might collect when I register new domain names. Depending on the success of these ventures, I’ll need to spend a bit more to handle all the streaming media and storage space requirements. So, assuming MidPhase wants to make things easier for me and process the application I needlessly had to fill out last weekend, I’ll be sure to give them a bit more business.

But this does raise the question: Why is it taking so long to “process” an upgrade request? Wouldn’t this just be a simple matter of taking a couple of bucks from my credit card and changing a setting on my account? Heck, why isn’t this a completely automated process?

Excessive Lag Reaching Timeout

I’ve been pretty patient with MidPhase for the most part, tolerating unacceptable amounts of downtime, slow support through the forums and a change of hands (they’re now owned by a UK media group), but with so much time on my hands, I’ve had the opportunity to look at some of the competing offers from other vendors. This might have just made MidPhase’s price structure obsolete in this customer’s eyes.

Three companies I’ve heard lots of positive feedback for are BlueHost, MediaTemple and Webhosting Pad. Comparing thier packages and prices to what I pay and receive now, it’s clear that I could save money within 14 months by purchasing a package through another company.

I really don’t ask for much from a web host. Just the following things:

  • 99.9% active and verifiable net connectivity time (just because the server is running while the net connection is down does not mean my server has 99.9% uptime)
  • PHP & MySQL (or access to a MS SQL Server 2000 or better database)
  • affordable (no more than $12 a month)
  • FTP and SSH
  • POP email accounts
  • Multiple Domain and Sub-Domain hosting on the same account
  • 500+ Gig of transfer
  • 50+ Gig of storage space
  • rapid support through forums or email (6 hour turnaround time)
  • PayPal payments

If all of this is met and I have the option of having a shell account that permits eggdrop bots all with the same account, then I’d really hop on board.

But, of course, if I wanted to have absolutely everything, then I’d need to host my own server. It’s a shame that Japanese ISPs filter out port 80 just like their Canadian counterparts. I’d have no qualms with hosting my own server from home on some ancient Pentium 3 500.

All this said, let’s take a quick look at the three companies that I examined.

BlueHost

BlueHost was one of the companies I had considered back in 2006 before going with with MidPhase. They were well priced and had packages comparable to what I found elsewhere. However, because a prominent WordPress developer had sung praises for MidPhase, I had decided to go there.

BlueHost currently offers a nice 1,500 GB of storage with 15 TB (yes, TeraBytes) of data transfer. They allow for unlimited domains (including international addresses) and meet all of my criteria. They even have SSH Shell access, but there’s no word on whether they permit eggdrops on the server. Probably not, but this is definately a company I’ll give due consideration to. Some of my plans will rely heavily on PHP, Ruby and networks capable of streaming dozens of videos simultaneously. Nothing like YouTube or other video sites, but there is certainly potential for heavy bandwidth usage.

A complete list of their features can be found on their “Tell Me More” page, and it is a great list for anyone that wants to have the option to do anything with their websites.

MediaTemple

MediaTemple has perhaps one of the most robust packages available. Rather than having you share a single server with a bunch of other customers, you’re sharing the total processing power of all the webservers in the building. This means that if your site is hit hard by Digg, Reddit and StumbleUpon all at the same time, the server will not grind to a halt and choke. While most of my plans will likely not have much of an impact on the social media sites, it would be nice to know the site would be up and active should those massive bursts of traffic arrive.

Like BlueHost, they offer much of what I’m looking for. 100 Gig of storage with 1 TB of bandwidth is reasonable, and they have great Ruby support and the ability to host 100 individual sites from a single account. I doubt I’d be exceeding this amount in the next few years, but it’s nice to know the expansion is there if I need it. At $20 a month, they’re the most expensive of the three options but, thanks to their grid computing, you can certainly get quite a bit of power for your dollar should it be necessary.

Webhosting Pad

The name was an instant turn-off for me but, like the old saying goes, you can’t judge a book by its cover. Webhosting Pad offers a great deal of features for a minimal price tag and they’re looking like the clear leader in my quest for a new host. With 17 Gig of storage, 17 TB of transfer and a price tag under $5, it’s hard to say no. Like BlueHost, they have everything I’m asking for from a webhost except the SSH Shell access, but this is something I can live without.

What really grabs my attention with Webhosting Pad over the other offers is the amount of unlimited features that come with the basic package. While I doubt I would ever need unlimited POP, IMAP, Parked Domains, Subdomains and MySQL databases, it’s certainly nice to know the flexibility is there should I wish to expand in every direction but down. The fact they advertize Dual Xeon servers also piques my attention, as I’ve had nothing but solid reliability from everything Xeon-based.

The Winner Is … ?

Each one of these hosting companies has a strength over the competition and it will be hard to decide which one to go with in the future. One thing is certain, though. If MidPhase can’t get back to me regarding simple things like account upgrades, then I’d be afraid to think what would happen if my server caught fire and died. Sure, it might never happen, but you never know :???:
Do you have any experience with these hosts? Do you know of another that offers just as much but for a better price? I’d be interested to know your take on the subject.