I’m sure just how frustrating everyone finds setting up and managing web sites, I have over the last 20 or so years tried quite a number of free and paid for services. In my experience the Hosting companies seldom give an accurate up front indication of the actual costs, as there are always a whole host of little extras to contend with. I have as I said been with quite a number of providers, these have been big and small some have survived and some haven’t. My current provider is a company based in the United States, they are called Powweb and they have been just fantastic over the years. In truth I can’t think of any occasion where I have been less than 100% happy with them, everything is as it’s described and you do seem to know exactly what you are getting up front.
As far as cost goes, I’m pretty sure I could save a few pence a month – maybe even more than a pound a month ($1.65) if I really tried. But I’m pretty sure I won’t get any where near the same level or quality of service, I actually base that statement on my personal experience. I know that I’m inviting feedback on that point, but I can temper it with the caveat that I’ve only tried around a dozen or so of the hosting companies. And have found that none of them come close to what I currently get from Powweb.
Which brings me round to the reason for the post, as usual I was stupid enough to try to do a friend a favour and here’s how it went. “I’ve seen this company offering free web hosting with 2000Mb data storage and 100Gb of band width – this will be more than I’ll ever need – can you check it out for me.“ I offered the same to said Muppet if he paid for the domain he wanted, but no he was determined to go with this other free service if he possibly could. So of I went to do a favour, here’s how it went.
Find the website for the hosting company, pretty easy with a not bad looking front end. Create a free account, this went OK as well – so far two for two. Then set up a free sub-domain – 502 bad gateway error, the first problem I thought. Still maybe the set up failed, trying to set it up again indicated it was already in use – but trying to manage it in any form resulted in a 502 again. Contacted my pal and advised him to forget it, but no and the reason for persevering was “maybe it’s not working because I haven’t spent any money with them”. I couldn’t help the quick grab for the Cheese Grater, but this bloke was well out of reach so it was to no avail and I dropped it back into the drawer. The next bit caused my lower jaw to start quivering and my eyes to fill, could I register a domain for him because as new business they would be really keen to have that bit right. So after explaining that I would be charging for my time off I went, in just a couple of minutes I had registered and paid for a domain (927.00 Rupee’s for a year and that should have stopped me – but initially it displayed as the equivalent in Euro’s). Anyway an hour later I gave up with this crowd, contacted my soon to be ex friend and told him what had happened and how much it would cost.
His response was just a blinder, could I raise a support call – which I duly did. Some six hours ago and it hasn’t even been acknowledged (so much for his speedy response for paying customers). So I’ve worked out his bill, and it’s the equivalent of two years with my provider including a domain, if your looking for a web host that gives great value and service – just click on the advert below (It’s only £2.40/Month with a brilliant and very hard to beat package). Or if you have loads of time to wait on crap service, with support probably from “Derek in Bangalore” and the desire to “maybe have a working website” then contact me and I’ll tell you who to go for!