If you tried to visit Futurosity earlier today you know that my server was down. I’ve hosted with DreamHost (a nightmare) and Media Temple (overrated), so I moved Futurosity back to AN Hosting a few months ago. After a day like today, I would normally be looking for another host. But I’m not. Here’s why:
When DreamHost screws up (like when they overbill customers $7.5 million), they try to be clever (Um, Whoops.). Media Temple doesn’t go down very often. Instead, when your $20 a month Grid-Service site grinds to a halt because your MySQL server is overwhelmed, they try to sell you a MySQL Container (another $20 to $150 a month).
AN Hosting, on the other hand, just steps up to the plate. Here’s the post on their status blog:
For all those affected by today’s ans19 outage:
First off, we can’t thank you enough for your patience and understanding while our top minds are working to correct this problem. There was an unusual string of events that caused this server to be down for most of the day today. I want to personally assure you that we’re working diligently to get this server back to normal operation as soon as possible. We completely understand the inconveniences this has caused and wish to offer each affected user a free month credit on us.
If you’d like the free month (who wouldn’t!), please send in a ticket to our billing department (billing@midphase.com) and they’ll get you all fixed up.
Again, please accept my apologies for the trouble today. Each time an event such as this occurs, we sit down and discuss how to prevent this from happening in the future. Our technicians will continue to update the official post as more information becomes available.
Take care,
Marc Bollinger
General Manager
I won’t stay with any host that consistently screws up, but stuff happens. I’m glad to be with a host that’s transparent and proactive when things go wrong.
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8 Comments
Agreed! Began with IXWebHosting, gave (mt) a try, and I’m now quite content with AN Hosting.
They aren’t perfect, but they are honest and respond like real people, without fabricated excuses.
I haven’t found the perfect host, but AN Hosting comes close.
Nice themes, BTW!
Thanks Robert. I haven’t released a free one in quite some time, although I’ve one or two old ones lying around which I could release. Custom work is where I’m looking to go though.
@Robert - I’ve really enjoyed reading your articles on hosting/blogging. I just found your work at Upstart Blogger and followed you here. I’m moving toward setting up some sort of website and am deciding what route to take.
I have been using 1&1 for about 4 years now. I started off with their promotional 3yrs free in about 2003. I started paying last year. Did you have bad experiences with them?
Also, one of the things I have been thinking about recently is using a webhost as online storage for media (photos/video). Do you have any experience with that? Do hosts frown upon uploading 100GB+ of data that is really only there as an archive/backup in addition to the backups I have in my possession? I guess the storage is mine and I can do what I want with it.
Do you know if AN Hosting’s bandwidth allowance is also referring to FTP transfer or is there a separate limit for that. I haven’t really dug into their small print, but I thought you might have an answer.
Thanks for the nice work.
Thanks for your comment, Luke. Glad you found me!
I was with 1&1 a few years ago and I do remember having some problems with them. It’s been awhile and I can’t remember all the details, but I didn’t stay with them very long. Service wasn’t very responsive and I found their back end awkward to use. But if you’ve been with them 3 years and haven’t had any problems, you know more than I do. My experience with hosts has been that a lot of it is luck, getting on a good server.
I don’t think AN Hosting would have a problem with you hosting 100GB+ of data, but I can’t say for sure. The issues that concern most hosts are are bandwidth and CPU and MySQL, the things that strain their systems. I’m not sure about FTP transfers.
Hope that helps!
Wonderful post buddy,
I went to anhosting site a few days back. Wanted to talk to a live talk agent there. I kept waiting, but had no response. I got a bad impression and left the site. Else I would have tried them out.
I went there in the first place because I was on a nightmare host called dreamhost. I am still there, because I am within their 97days money back guaranty period.
Recently I found Hostgator. They are offering a trial month for just $0.01. All I had to do was
1. Go to Hostgator
”
2. Opt for the baby plan
3. Use the coupon code “freemonth”.
As of now their service looks good. I would like to hear if anyone had any previous good/bad experience with them.
Perfect host has to be SliceHost. Who else would give you a VPS with full functionality to get your hands dirty and do anything you want with your space for $20 a month. I guess you should definitely check it out.
Looks interesting, Dilip. A little skimpy on the resources, but an intriguing idea.