They do the domain squatting trick if you register a domain through them. A friend registered a domain and hosting with them. He decided he wanted to change hosts. Their control panel didn't give him control of his domain. He called them to unlock the domain so it could be transfered. This could only be done by phone. They stated they would transfer him to that department, put him on hold for 10 minutes, then the phone gets disconnected. He eventually abandoned the domain.

If you do a search, the above is a common tactic with them. Network Solutions and others do the same thing.

You can try them, but don't register your domain with them. Godaddy is a good domain registrar (lousy hosting imo). As a general rule, never register a domain through your host. It may take an attorney to get control of your domain. Many even put the domain name in their name, not yours.

If you are paying more than $5 per month, you are also paying to much for shared hosting.

I agree with what you said when i did decide to try phone support it was horrible, i was on hold for absolutly AGES! i think one of the main problems is (i believe) their support call center is on one contienent and the billing dept call center is on another! its ridiculous u even mention anything to do with invoices or payment and support freeze up and u get the contact billing, which has the slowest response time error. - when you forget if you emailed them when you get a reply u know its too slow.

Now i have to disagree, quite strongly with the whole paying more than $5 its too much, i know you can get it cheaper but i think as long as you have a decent package which a sensible amount of features and disk space etc etc, then the $10 region is fine.

But personally i think if your paying less than $2 u cant expect much in way of support. its just silly ammount for what you get (unless of course its a mini account )

I have a host 24/7 email only support for a shared server. In 5 years, I have only had two significant outages with them. Once their server was hacked and put a muslem page on every index page on the server. They said someone got in through a weak client password. they have since upgraded password requirements. The other was a disk crash.

I don't need to talk to someone when I have a problem. I'd rather shoot an email than be on hold with Godaddy for 20 minutes.

For a critical site, no I probably wouldn't use them. For sites under development, non critical, or low traffic sites they have been great.

I have a reseller plan with them for $10.95 per month. I also have a number of individual sites with them for $1.75 per month.

Obviously, since a disk failure took a site down for about 24 hours they don't have redundant servers. For development and the other types of sites I mentioned above, they are great and cheap. My sites tend to be pretty low traffic as well.

A newbie really needs phone support starting out. Someone to tell them how to FTP, use a CP etc. After 6 mo or so you don't need that much hand holding.

Obviously this is just my experience and opinion, but I would steer someone just starting out to a company that gives good telephone support for 6 months. After that, a company like I use is all you need until you get into a high traffic or very critical situation.

I would also steer people away from the real big players like one and one, Network Solutions and Godaddy as well. I use Godaddy for domain registration, but would not use them for hosting.

Lastly, I think it is a good idea to have a backup host. I have seen large hosting companies sell and put their clients off line for 2 weeks. If you have an inexpensive reseller account somewhere, it gives you the option of changing nameservers and you up and running if a hurricane takes out your current host.

There are a lot of approaches and it depends on your objectives, but that's the way I approach it anyway.

^ Thanks for what was a well thought out and well written answer, we need more people like you on the forum who give constructive answers!
[TP Given]

for a month my sites at 1&1 had unexplained downtime every day at one point, often for 10 minutes or so. but after a quick phone call to customer support it seems to have been sorted out, as its been fine for weeks now.

Overall its not been a bad experience for me, just a few little problems...but that's always expected really - I will probably soon upgrade my package with them to extend my bandwidth allowance.

[Edit] Oh and we've been with them for a few years now.

Thanks Dan. There are so many pitfalls in this stuff when you are starting out and even if you know what you are doing. The hosting and domain scams are among them. And they don't even need to be scams. There is just a lot of stuff you need to know and a ton of different approaches.

Wow I was thinking about trying 1 an1 1 too, sounds like I need to think again.

well 1 and 1 is an good hosting service to have. I have read alot about them and their services they are as good as godadddy webhoting service. Most of the customers who has opted this service are convinced with the service.

Erm...

Since when has godaddy been a good web host...

I was able to send about 20,000 spam emails (Same Email, 20,000 times in 12 hours) when i made a infinite loop on a mail script and 1and1 didn't seem to notice/care.

I like them

I rest my case....

I too have been using 1and1 for a couple of years and they were a good host at first, then started going down. Their tech support often times have no idea what they are saying to customers. I have about 5 sites hosted with them and it will be a pain to move, so I may end up staying.

Originally Posted by andrewa124

I too have been using 1and1 for a couple of years and they were a good host at first, then started going down. Their tech support often times have no idea what they are saying to customers. I have about 5 sites hosted with them and it will be a pain to move, so I may end up staying.

Im sure if you find a nice host, and ask nicely they will handle the transfer ask them really nicely and it will be free.

I know i would spend a few minutes doing it for a client

As any other company will be happy to help prospective customer to move his stuff to their server.

i had some customers who used them, and some friends who are locked in on a contract.

Services are good...support is beyond crappy (Said it takes them over 24-48 hours to get a response)

yea the contracts disgust me.

My involvement with them was when i took over managing a charity website, i was shocked that they wouldnt give any kind of refund to a tiny charity which has been hosting with them becasue of poor service.

I think the response times depended on the department billing took days support was a couple of hours but i cant remember a single reply which was remotly useful... all canned answers all total crap

Never had any experience with them. But from all those reviews I read about them on various forums they seem to be one of the worst hosts out there. The company is one of the famous hosting providers out there but at the same site it is one of the (or the only one)big hosts that has that many bad reviews posted all over the internet. If a host has that many bad reviews, you better stay away from them.

worst company ive ever been with - absolutely horrendous! The support is non-existant

also - earlier comments regarding the features are also true - theres so many basic features missing with the domain management

I've never personally used them, but I've heard very good things from multiple customers.

their handling of access logs is pitiful - you actually NEVER get complete data for your site - in fact you lose a LOT of data (about who visits)

this alone would put off anyone who is customer-service oriented