Software Developer Consultant, San Diego, California

ASP.NET Web Hosting

This site is hosted by Arvixe. Do I recommend them? It all depends on what you need in a web hosting provider. I'll say that I'm "happy" with them at the moment. But let me tell you a little story to explain.

At one time I was hosted by WebHost4Life and was very happy with them. In my case, the main benefit I look for is CHEAP. I own a bunch of websites, though nowhere near as many as I once did. There was a time when I owned over 1,300 little websites, but that was a much simpler time (simpler from the standpoint of web search engine algorithm simplicity and what it took for a website to appear near the top of a result page). Today things a very different. Currently I have less than 50 websites / domains. Besides creating websites for generating income (or more accurately now, in the "hope" of generating income), I also create some sites for testing or experimental purposes.

WebHost4Life was not only cheap, but they provided very good service (at the time). When any server / downtime problems occurred, their tech support department was very responsive and resolved problems quickly. I was a very happy customer.

Then, "the Borg" showed up and everything changed

(Star Trek TNG reference, not meant literally.)

Endurance International Group (EIG) bought WebHost4life. Did the acquisition affect the quality of tech support at WebHost4Life? Google "WebHost4Life reviews" for the answer.

I painstakingly moved all my websites to another web hosting company, Arvixe. At the time Arvixe had a fantastic reputation as a company with just about the best tech support around. And having good tech support had suddenly become a higher priority for me than it had been previously. In addition, they were also CHEAP, which was still an important factor for me personally. I could not have been happier with the service Arvixe provided.

Then, "the Borg" showed up - AGAIN!

Endurance International Group (EIG) bought Arvixe. Did the acquisition affect the quality of tech support at Arvixe? Google "Arvixe reviews" for the answer.

If you spend some time googling for information on Endurance International Group (EIG) you'll see that these guys now own almost everybody. Interestingly, you'll see that some are starting to make lists available online of web hosting companies that have NOT yet been bought out by them. Some go as far as inquiring at a web hosting company to see if they would ever agree to an acquisition by EIG. For some, the answer to that question is apparently an important factor in deciding whether or not they want to be hosted by a given web host provider.

Personally, I've decided that "resistance is futile": That is, if I were to switch web hosting providers, no doubt it would only be a matter of time and then I 'would be assimilated' yet again

(Yes, another Star Trek TNG "Borg" reference.)

So, I try my best to resolve web hosting tech problems myself as much as possible. To the point that sometimes I may have to upload and temporarily enable some PHP script on a website to resolve some issue, then disable and remove the script when I'm done. I've also moved the email provider for this website, www.scottreis.com, to Google Gmail, while leaving the website itself at Arvixe. I was having so many problems with email going down and missing emails from clients that I could no longer "endure" having Arvixe handle my scott@scottreis.com email. So, with a little modification of my website DNS records (plus a $6/mo. charge by Google for the business email service), I now have one of the most reliable email providers around - Google Gmail - for hosting my scott@scottreis.com email, but still have my CHEAP web hosting provider, Arvixe, for hosting my www.scottreis.com website. I'm paying extra for something, email, that is supposed to be included in what I pay Arvixe for the website hosting, but I sleep much better knowing that I'm not missing any emails from clients. For my other websites I go ahead and let Arvixe handle both the web hosting and the email. But for this website, where I may be receiving an email from a client in need of urgent support, I don't want the risk of leaving the email in Arvixe's hands and I'm happy paying extra to Google Gmail to mitigate that risk.