What host do you guys use for big boards?

[profanitytalker]

Hey guys,

I wanna know what host you guys use on your big boards. Do you guys still use shared hosting or dedicated? Please reply. Thanks. :D

[JacBowen]

I imagine dedicated as there is a lot of server load, but some people think that if you have a big board you have to fork out for a dedi server, this is not true. If you find a stable shared hosting provider they will let you host a big board doing this you wouldnt have to worry about RAM/CPU usage etc, but I would contact a shared hosting provider before buying and ask them if you can.

Regarding servers my top would be Softlayer ;).

[---MAD---]

We used a dedicated server from softlayer. They are very good :).

[Michael2]

I use SoftLayer also and have been absolutely thrilled with their service. :up:

[JacBowen]

Softlayers prices aint bad at all so I would suggest picking up one of those bargain deals and have a nice speedy forum ;).

Jac

[profanitytalker]

Thanks for the suggestions guys. :) I will try softlayer.

[Hendrizius]

i am using hetzner, a german hosting company. It is a root-server.

[AWS]

I have 2 servers with Softlayer and 2 with LayeredTech. Both provide great service at a reasonable price.

[Lord.Khalid]

I have one server from koreru.com, and I happy with them

Good Luck

[TECK]

Softlayer is great, if not amazing. But I still think unmetered collocation comes cheaper. :)

[Reeve of shinra]

I have a dedicated server with simpli.biz - great group of people and excellent support.

[ludachris]

Colocated @ LiquidWeb

[Paul M]

1&1 root server(s).

[linesider]

Used to be with The Planet, narrowed my choices to Softlayer and LiquidWeb knowing I would be happy with either, got a great deal from Liquidweb - been there about a year, very happy...

[MetalAges]

I used to be with EV1/the Planet - and recently moved to Softlayer and am loving it so far.

[hotcouponworld]

we're with surpass hosting. I couldn't tell you the size of our equipment...I do know I have heard my hubby mention things like dual processors and that the next server we go to will have to be a second server that's like the one we're on now. It is a dedicated server. so that's nice. The shared one, we weren't sharing so nicely - our traffic was pulling a lot of load.

[bongwater]

dedicated server at hostway.com, paying $200 a month. Been with them for about 5 years, I have no gripes. If I am paying more than what I should be, can somebody hit me up with a PM or something and let me know how much less I should be paying, and from where. thanx

[edgecutioner]

^ that depends on what spec you have on your box:)

[therogueforums]

I've been with SiteGround for over a year. It's a shared server, and I must say, it's not the greatest. It runs you 5.95/month. I'm not happy because we have a relatively small forum, yet we constantly run in to server resource issues.

I'll be looking to moving to something else later, probably HostMonster, or possibly SoftLayer.

[Skedoozy]

Currently I am with ASmallOrange on a VPS and I couldn't be more UN-HAPPY! Ugh. slowdown all the time, server is constantly going down. I do NOT want to move hosts again but I am going to have to it looks like.

[req2d]

VPS: http://www.futurehosting.biz/default.htm (hosted at softlayer), couldn't be happier. Great team, lots of knowledge and service is A+

My site: http://www.game-artist.net

[Marco van Herwaarden]

Guys please, this is a topic about Big Boards. There is absolutly no need to post your VPS details here.

[ludachris]

Just an update - we have a dedicated server and a colo at Liquidweb. Absolutely love the support. You can get someone on the phone 24 hours a day. We were moving 25 gigs of data to the new server and ran into a problem that required someone at the data center to get involved. We sent them an email request at 3 am. thinking it would take a several hours, it was done in 20 mins.

Haven't run into a problem they wouldn't fix yet. And always friendly. This report is after 11 months of service. Once we receive our server from our old host I'll tell you who to stay away from ;)

[Shazz]

If its really a bid board, go dedicated. There are too many good hosts to list them all

[scruff2]

Bongwater, nice site but at 175 members on, it's slow as molasses...

Don't know what you're getting for $200 but it's way too slow.

[Zachery]

Softlayer.

[bada_bing]

I have 2 servers with Softlayer and 2 with LayeredTech. Both provide great service at a reasonable price.

How can some of you afford to host such small sites on Softlayer?

[Marco van Herwaarden]

..and why do you respond to a thread about Big Boards, if you have a small site.

[BrandiDup]

Not sure what exactly defines "big board" but we're hosted by LiquidWeb on a dedicated server. It was a huge $$$ jump going from VPS to dedicated, but it's been VERY worth it. Huge difference in load times and performance. LiquidWeb's support is unmatched. Love them and will probably never leave them :D

[moveforward]

After reading this thread, I am thinking about moving to Softlayer too. Can I ask anyone hosting there what Softlayer's support is like. I need to be able to get people on the phone when and if things go wrong...

[CSS59]

Do you guys have a fully managed server with SoftLayer?
I have a large forum in need of a good server.........badly!
I need them to watch it 24/7 and make sure it's secure

[amcd]

If you can manage your own servers and have a really big board, go to webnx.com. Great hardware, great pricing. They do configs the others would not even talk about. They maybe a little slow on new setups and upgrades sometimes, but they are always there when needed for support.

Been with them for 22 months. No complaints whatsoever.

[ludachris]

Just received our server from our old host - Bizwala (formerly Ilon, formerly Remarkable). This was a fully managed dedicated solution, we had two servers with them. A few years ago before they lost their lead tech they were great. Since then I've had one of their dedicated servers with 15 of our sites get hacked into and was unrecoverable due to an old version of php/mysql installed. Upon trying to ask questions to get the problem fixed I was copied on an email that I was not supposed to read and found that the lead tech had called me an "idiot". Being the nice guy that I am I didn't realize he was referring to me right away. Needless to say I made plans to jump ship and find a new host that was more professional. I read countless reviews and found that Liquidweb had the type of support I needed. 24/7 phone support and great email support. They also stay on top of critical software updates on their own so I don't have to worry about it.

The sad thing is I had been with the my old host for years. The owner is a good guy and they had gone above and beyond many times in the past. But he needs more help from some more professional people. It's a small operation and the support tends to show it more than it should. It wasn't always like that.

Anyway, I'm extremely happy with the choice of Liquidweb.

[honestdave]

we are paying $425 with our current host for
AMD dual opt dual core 280
4 gigs of ram
5x 16o gig drives

and they threw in a free reseller account, so I can setup some small sites here and there easily.

We use our current host because they have AIM support though.

[attroll]

I purchased my owner server and here are the specs:

2x INTEL XEON 5345 2.33GHZ 8MB QUAD CORE, This is 8 cores
4x 2048MB Memory giving me a total of 8GB of memory
4x 250GB hard drive setup as raid 10 = 500GB total usage
1x 250GB as a backup drive
1x 250GB a spare drive

I did a colo with this server through colo4dallas. In my opinion if you are going to keep a big board up and running it is cheaper to buy your own server and colo it. Renting or leasing a server is putting money into someone else’s pocket. Over a period of one year with the price you pay for using someone else’s dedicated server you could have purchased your own server. I am paying ½ if not lower then what everyone else paying because I own my server. If you going to buy a server of your own get something expandable so it will grow with you.

[Ian_W]

Thanks for the info - we are currently at 1.25million posts - okay we only have a 100 or so online at anyone time, but I am thinking about moving the site away from the planet.

I had never heard of softlayer but will take a look :)

--------------- Added 1196533584 at 1196533584 ---------------

just had a look shame they do not seem to do managed servers :( Any recommendations for a host that can manage servers?

[Smitty]

I just moved to Softlayer from the Planet because I was migrating a site and the person migrating it suggested Softlayer. The Planet was alway good to me and I may even move back in a month or so because of data transfer rate issues with Softlayer.

Comment: For those of you thinking of a dedicated server, if you don't know how to set up and manage a server you'll probably be paying lots of $$ for server management. Server management can cost you as much as, or more, each month than the server costs, not to mention it is difficult to find a really good management company or person that you can trust.

[attroll]

Comment: For those of you thinking of a dedicated server, if you don't know how to set up and manage a server you'll probably be paying lots of $$ for server management. Server management can cost you as much as, or more, each month than the server costs, not to mention it is difficult to find a really good management company or person that you can trust.

This is a very true comment. You get what you pay for with someone else managing you server.

I went through two cheap server management companies that were recommended from posts I read on other web sites. Some server management companies know just enough to get by or have long response times. You want a company that knows servers and all the ins and outs. You also want one with quick response times. When you have a problem with your server you do not want to have to wait 12 to 24 hours for them to look at it. The company I have now I have been very happy with for $65 a month. Granted you can find cheaper ones but like I said you get what you pay for. As Smitty also said you can find some that also cost just as much as your dedicated server. But keep one thing in mind. If you have a good company set your server up for you and if it was done right you should never had to have them mess with your server again for you unless you want something changed or you mess something up. So why pay someone a lot of money monthly when they are doing nothing except scanning your server for viruses for you and a few other things

[Smitty]

But keep one thing in mind. If you have a good company set your server up for you and if it was done right you should never had to have them mess with your server again for you unless you want something changed or you mess something up. So why pay someone a lot of money monthly when they are doing nothing except scanning your server for viruses for you and a few other things Yes. The main thing is patches and stuff like upgrades that come out. Other than that, if set up correctly a server should pretty much run its self.

[nyunyu]

At first reading this thread title, I am interested of knowing which host does you big boards guys use. But more and more I read, the post arent anymore related to the title. Why not the mods delete or move these unrelated post to other thread?

[Zachery]

This is a very true comment. You get what you pay for with someone else managing you server.

I went through two cheap server management companies that were recommended from posts I read on other web sites. Some server management companies know just enough to get by or have long response times. You want a company that knows servers and all the ins and outs. You also want one with quick response times. When you have a problem with your server you do not want to have to wait 12 to 24 hours for them to look at it. The company I have now I have been very happy with for $65 a month. Granted you can find cheaper ones but like I said you get what you pay for. As Smitty also said you can find some that also cost just as much as your dedicated server. But keep one thing in mind. If you have a good company set your server up for you and if it was done right you should never had to have them mess with your server again for you unless you want something changed or you mess something up. So why pay someone a lot of money monthly when they are doing nothing except scanning your server for viruses for you and a few other things
Because when you're server goes down at 3 am on christmas I'm there fixing it.

System administration is a full time job, if you think a real system admin that you're paying top dollar for is just sitting around scanning for virirus and waiting for things to happen you're sorely mistaken.

[amcd]

Because when you're server goes down at 3 am on christmas I'm there fixing it.

System administration is a full time job, if you think a real system admin that you're paying top dollar for is just sitting around scanning for virirus and waiting for things to happen you're sorely mistaken.
It's no use. People will only learn from their own mistakes. And in this case it is quite normal for a person who has not faced a disaster to think that he is being charged for nothing special.

At the same time, you must also appreciate that there are entities out there who are charging the best rates for sub-standard services. Therefore, some of these opinions may be justified.

I learned my lesson long ago and decided to spend my time learning stuff. And I don't regret it.

[attroll]

At first reading this thread title, I am interested of knowing which host does you big boards guys use. But more and more I read, the post arent anymore related to the title. Why not the mods delete or move these unrelated post to other thread?

Sorry I am guilty for taking this off track. I was just trying to state that you could own your own server and only pay for bandwidth rather them paying a high monthly price for a dedicated server.

It's no use. People will only learn from their own mistakes. And in this case it is quite normal for a person who has not faced a disaster to think that he is being charged for nothing special.

At the same time, you must also appreciate that there are entities out there who are charging the best rates for sub-standard services. Therefore, some of these opinions may be justified.

I learned my lesson long ago and decided to spend my time learning stuff. And I don't regret it.
Zachery

I was not insinuating that you sat around doing nothing. What I was trying to say was if the end user (people like me) do not mess around with there server settings then there is not much that will go wrong as long as then get a server management team that does what they are suppose to do. Paying hundreds of dollars for server management support is not required. Sometimes when you pay that much you are not getting any better support then what some of the lower priced companies give you. There are some companies that charge too much to do the same things as the lower priced company does. What it all boils down to is if you are paying $25 a month for server management support you get what you pay for. Which is most likely someone doing nothing or very little and getting paid for it. The person that is looking for a company to manage there server has to do there research.

When I started out I tried two companies that charged between $25 and $35 and did not know all the crap they stated they knew in their write-ups or they hired help that had little experience. The reason I know this is because I know a little about servers and when I was asking questions about some issues the answers they gave me were incorrect and they were trying to baffle me with crap.

Right now I have a great server management company and if my server goes down at 3 am on Christmas day, I know I have a support team that will be right on it.

Sorry I said that you sit around doing nothing. I worded that statement wrong. I know that a good team keeps everything up to date and does more then checking for viruses. I was just trying to say that you don?t have to pay over $100 for a good server management company.

[Zachery]

Sorry I am guilty for taking this off track. I was just trying to state that you could own your own server and only pay for bandwidth rather them paying a high monthly price for a dedicated server.


Zachery

I was not insinuating that you sat around doing nothing. What I was trying to say was if the end user (people like me) do not mess around with there server settings then there is not much that will go wrong as long as then get a server management team that does what they are suppose to do. Paying hundreds of dollars for server management support is not required. Sometimes when you pay that much you are not getting any better support then what some of the lower priced companies give you. There are some companies that charge too much to do the same things as the lower priced company does. What it all boils down to is if you are paying $25 a month for server management support you get what you pay for. Which is most likely someone doing nothing or very little and getting paid for it. The person that is looking for a company to manage there server has to do there research.

When I started out I tried two companies that charged between $25 and $35 and did not know all the crap they stated they knew in their write-ups or they hired help that had little experience. The reason I know this is because I know a little about servers and when I was asking questions about some issues the answers they gave me were incorrect and they were trying to baffle me with crap.

Right now I have a great server management company and if my server goes down at 3 am on Christmas day, I know I have a support team that will be right on it.

Sorry I said that you sit around doing nothing. I worded that statement wrong. I know that a good team keeps everything up to date and does more then checking for viruses. I was just trying to say that you don?t have to pay over $100 for a good server management company.
You're not in the right class though either, I've been a system and network administrator for both private clients and coperations.

When I think big board now adays I think 3-5 servers.

[attroll]

You're not in the right class though either, I've been a system and network administrator for both private clients and coperations.

When I think big board now adays I think 3-5 servers.
Sorry I did not mean this to turn into a debate. I was simply suggesting to one person that it is cheaper in the long run to purchase your own server rather then rent or lease a server and that is a fact. I am not going to debate this anymore.

[Zachery]

Sorry I did not mean this to turn into a debate. I was simply suggesting to one person that it is cheaper in the long run to purchase your own server rather then rent or lease a server and that is a fact. I am not going to debate this anymore.
the TCO of leased vs bought is fairly complicated as well tbh.

While it may be initially cheaper, in the long run more than likely it wouldn't be.

[pds]

I have a dedicated box at ASmallOrange.com. They are pretty darn good, and there prices are decent. They are growing pretty quickly, and I have noticed there support slowing dramatically. All the conversation about SoftLayer is intriguing.

Dedicated is the way to go. I have 7000 users and over a million posts, and I am not stressing my server at all.

[projectego]

I have a dedicated server with TotalChoiceHosting.com -- they're pretty good. :)

[fumbalah]

We use softlayer as well. Handles our forum fine, we're planning on picking up a second server shortly.

[EricGT]

I have a half-cabinet at a large co-lo facility. I am currently running seven servers on my network, four of which are directly related to the site's operation. the others are a firewall, backup server and mail server. I could do everything I am doing on two or three servers, but I like spreading things out.

Computing power wasn't the determining factor for me, when it came to making a hosting decision. My primary concern was bandwidth. I currently have a 10mbs pipe and I am using about 85% of it, at peak times. Of the two, computing power is a much cheaper commodity for a webhost to offer than bandwidth. In a colocated facility, I can contract the bandwidth directly from a big telecom provider and skip the middleman markup. I am averaging more than 60GB of data transfer a day, at this point. If I were paying for my bandwidth by the GB, I would be living in a refrigerator box. Eric

[TECK]

If I were paying for my bandwidth by the GB, I would be living in a refrigerator box. Eric
Haha, I like the way you put it. Are you using 95th percentile billing?
I like your current setup... Collocation is the way to go. But I'm interested how you deal with the bandwidth...
I'm facing similar issues, so I would like to know more about your billing method.

[EricGT]

Haha, I like the way you put it. Are you using 95th percentile billing?
I like your current setup... Collocation is the way to go. But I'm interested how you deal with the bandwidth...
I'm facing similar issues, so I would like to know more about your billing method.

I'm not sure what 95th percentile billing is. I am paying a flat rate for the 10mbs pipe and for the cabinet. The throughput doesn't matter. If I max out the pipe though, my current setup isn't burtstable, which means some people are just going to hit a wall if I run out of bandwidth. Most colo ISP's will offer burstable capability on the connections they offer.

The facility I am in is very nice. I won't drop names, but there are some big fish hosting there. The security is like something out of a James Bond movie: Man traps, retina scans, sniffers capable of picking up the alcohol in a wet wipe, you name it. The place is great. Eric

[TECK]

Aha, unmetered bandwidth. Can you PM me the website? Thanks.

[masons]

I host everything with valvehosting.com no problems so far!

[attroll]

I'm not sure what 95th percentile billing is. I am paying a flat rate for the 10mbs pipe and for the cabinet. The throughput doesn't matter. If I max out the pipe though, my current setup isn't burtstable, which means some people are just going to hit a wall if I run out of bandwidth. Most colo ISP's will offer burstable capability on the connections they offer.

The facility I am in is very nice. I won't drop names, but there are some big fish hosting there. The security is like something out of a James Bond movie: Man traps, retina scans, sniffers capable of picking up the alcohol in a wet wipe, you name it. The place is great. Eric
Yes could you PM me the name of you colo also.

[Digma]

We moved from EV1 to Softlayer a couple of months ago. Dedicated server.

[klaush]

So if you live in Germany, i think Hetzner is one of your best choice.

The support is amazing and the pricing is o.k.!

www.hetzner.de

[Digma]

So if you live in Germany, i think Hetzner is one of your best choice.

The support is amazing and the pricing is o.k.!

www.hetzner.de

The pricing is certainly ok, but with that type of prices I always start to think if it is at all possible. I mean, compared to what I am paying at Softlayer this is about 150 euro's cheaper (with the current dollar - euro exchange rate).

Do they only offer AMD chips? No Intel?

And in a way it looks familiar, is this a hosting reseller, because they have the same way of presenting their dedicated server listings as another big german host does. Can't remember its name though.

For me it doesn't matter that much where the server is located not even in Germany (no language barrier for me :P). The only thing I want is a stable server with a fast, solid connection and enough bandwidth. So perhaps you can share some more information through PM or here?

Edit: forgot to mention this, do they offer 24/7 support?

[m_k]

I switched over to Servint.net (http://servint.net/) this past summer after a major meltdown at my previous host - so far I have been very pleased with the 24/7 support system. I have had to contact support a few times, and problems have always been handled promptly and competently. If you are on a VPS, upgrading your server can be done with practically no downtime at all. From what I can see on the internal support forums, there are quite a few customers running vBulletin boards.

[FlyBoy73]

I purchased my owner server and here are the specs:

2x INTEL XEON 5345 2.33GHZ 8MB QUAD CORE, This is 8 cores
4x 2048MB Memory giving me a total of 8GB of memory
4x 250GB hard drive setup as raid 10 = 500GB total usage
1x 250GB as a backup drive
1x 250GB a spare drive

I did a colo with this server through colo4dallas. In my opinion if you are going to keep a big board up and running it is cheaper to buy your own server and colo it. Renting or leasing a server is putting money into someone else’s pocket. Over a period of one year with the price you pay for using someone else’s dedicated server you could have purchased your own server. I am paying ? if not lower then what everyone else paying because I own my server. If you going to buy a server of your own get something expandable so it will grow with you.

EXACTLY..

--------------- Added 1199312082 at 1199312082 ---------------

I have a half-cabinet at a large co-lo facility. I am currently running seven servers on my network, four of which are directly related to the site's operation. the others are a firewall, backup server and mail server. I could do everything I am doing on two or three servers, but I like spreading things out.

Computing power wasn't the determining factor for me, when it came to making a hosting decision. My primary concern was bandwidth. I currently have a 10mbs pipe and I am using about 85% of it, at peak times. Of the two, computing power is a much cheaper commodity for a webhost to offer than bandwidth. In a colocated facility, I can contract the bandwidth directly from a big telecom provider and skip the middleman markup. I am averaging more than 60GB of data transfer a day, at this point. If I were paying for my bandwidth by the GB, I would be living in a refrigerator box. Eric

You're doing 60GB of bandwidth over the public network per day with GlockTalk?

--------------- Added 1199312339 at 1199312339 ---------------

I have a 1/2 cabinet at Colo4Dallas.. I've been to/through a number of other colocation facilitie and they don't even come close to Colo4Dallas's bandwidth, quality, DC design and total uptime..

I recommend that any "Big Board" that needs more than middle-class dedicated server look into colocation.. It has been worth the money and much more..

[EricGT]

You're doing 60GB of bandwidth over the public network per day with GlockTalk?



Yep. we did 67.6GB yesterday. That is just the outbound interface for GT. Eric

[FlyBoy73]

Wow, pretty good Eric.. Long way from back in the late 90's.. ;) I am/was a member back in 99, I think, though I forgot my PW and no longer have that email address to recover with. (Sniper151?)

I can actually thank you / GT for getting me back into the forum/BBS world.. When I decided to open up a couple forums, I studied GT a fair amount.. Glad to see you got away from those T-1's and doing it at home.. I know that must have been painful at times..

David

[Zachery]

Sorry I did not mean this to turn into a debate. I was simply suggesting to one person that it is cheaper in the long run to purchase your own server rather then rent or lease a server and that is a fact. I am not going to debate this anymore.
I never noticed your response, however what happens when it comes to catastrophic server failure? Ram goes bad? HardDisk Crashes? You've got to drop ship new hardware to the colo facility, wait downtime, etc.

[amcd]

This is an endless debate. The are both pros and cons to either way of doing things. I would not colo. I prefer to rent my servers, just like Zachery.

[attroll]

I never noticed your response, however what happens when it comes to catastrophic server failure? Ram goes bad? HardDisk Crashes? You've got to drop ship new hardware to the colo facility, wait downtime, etc.
As Amcd said this is an endless debate but to answer your question, you need to research your colo ahead of time and to make sure they have these types of spare parts onhand and will install them. I would never use a colo that does not have spare parts onhand.

[TECK]

I never noticed your response, however what happens when it comes to catastrophic server failure? Ram goes bad? HardDisk Crashes? You've got to drop ship new hardware to the colo facility, wait downtime, etc.

I never deal with less then 3 servers. If you only have one server, ya... in a way you are right if you don't have a collocation center near your house. But still, why pay $250/month when you can get it for $70?

This is a good technique: Buy another server, keep it at home and sync data on it from the live server. You will have 2 possibilities:
1. Your site gets busier, so you can use that server as worker... with all data already synced on it. Then you buy a third server and do the same.
2. Your server is getting defective. It takes me 10min to drive to my data center and another 5 to replace the faulty server. Then I get it serviced by a Dell technician who replaces the defective hardware. In one day, my server is up and running again. If you are afraid that your server will blow and you do not want to ship the server, simply have it hooked in their data center as sync server, so you can switch to it any time.

In other words, you save every year at least $2,000 if you do not rent. You can buy a new machine every year with the money saved. Now, please tell me it is better to rent. :)

I only buy Dell machines (1950's more exactly). Their servers are very solid and I never had any problems with their service... ultra fast. I stick with Dell because of the great prices you get for the equipment.

If you tell me that Dell is crap, you know nothing about their servers. :)
They are one of the best on the market, Supermicro quality without the price.

[lauxanh]

SoftLayer is my first choice ;)

[TECK]

I agree, Softlayer is the best for renting servers.

They have top of the line equipment and their prices are very good.
Anyone tried to negotiate prices with them? :)

[MissKalunji]

what's their website?

[Nitro212]

i was with the planet, moved on to fdcservers for now, they have been great. tho you need have some *nix knowledge since they don't provide free support x_x

[G0F0RBR0KE]

You're paying for them? Yet, they don't provide 'support?' What kind of hosting are they? And what are you even thinking?!?

I know a host that has a dedicated server, but they won't help me. So, I don't bother with them.

[AWS]

It's called unmanaged hosting and is the preferred way to get a dedicated server. It is much cheaper than paying for a full managed dedicated server.

[Nitro212]

It's called unmanaged hosting and is the preferred way to get a dedicated server. It is much cheaper than paying for a full managed dedicated server.


exactly :) is cheaper and if i know what im doing, why i need to pay for something i wont use? is not like i ask for support every day... every once in a while i might get stuck but google is my friends so.. meanwhile i save more cash :)

oh and to clarify i have a dedicated server, thats why i need to do things myself is un-managed

[FlyBoy73]

Yes, but the downside to that is when you are sleeping, on vacation, etc.. If it doesn't matter that your server is off line or unavailable until you wake up, then that is fine, but for myself and many others, 10 minutes offline is too much, especially when it is because we were not aware of it.

[Nitro212]

yeah, true.. you got a point there, but since am always online it's ok for me.

[Amenadiel]

The planet.

Got there after mediatemple proved too slow with support tickets. Now I can file a request at 3am and it's solved in half an hour.

[kurtmorrison]

i'm having problems right now with the hosting, actually i am using 3ix, i want to use hostmonster, it will be owrth for me? I have almost 1000 users by the way :S

[GTX2]

burst.net is where i got my dedicated server and i'm pretty satisfied!

[kontrabass]

I know some here are going to laugh at me, but I've been with Rackspace for 2 years. I have two servers with them. Quoted prices are outrageous but you can talk them down. Treat it like a car purchase and get ready to 'walk away'. Support is really very incredible. There's nothing like a dedicated mysql pro on call, ready to dig through the logs and find problems. Especially if you're trying to run the whole business yourself with no IT dept. ;) Prior to this I'd been bouncing around with budget hosts around the whole country, and pulling my hair out every time an issue came up.

If there exists a colo facility with Rackspace-level managed support, I might consider colo. I've not found one - if servers are managed, the facility usually wants to use 'their machines' for consistency, right?. But until then it's either contract an IT guy, or just pay a bit more for Rackspace.

[Smitty]

Went to look at Rackspace. No prices anywhere. I guess you have to call/chat them up?

[peterska2]

I am with RackSpace myself. I find them fantastic and have to hell and back before deciding that it was better to pay a bit more and get the service that I expect to receive than skimping a bit on it and getting shafted when you need some support.

[SEOvB]

www.softlayer.com the best dedicated hosting company i've ever used :D

[Shawn Yue]

x10hosting No Ads Free Space And Data Base Space 50000KB

I Use Paid Server

For FREE Server No Ads

1000KB Data Base But Is Good For vb

50000Free Disk Space

[Marco van Herwaarden]

Please stick to the topic: Hosts for Big Boards.

[Jase2]

I am with RackSpace myself. I find them fantastic and have to hell and back before deciding that it was better to pay a bit more and get the service that I expect to receive than skimping a bit on it and getting shafted when you need some support.

I may be going to work for them sometime in the future. It looks a fun place; I can't wait!

I'd recommend a server from the The Planet, anyway.

Regards Jason :)

[Smitty]

www.softlayer.com the best dedicated hosting company i've ever used :D I'm with them now and they're OK. I've seen some data speed issues from time to time.

I migrated from The Planet last fall at the advice of the person who did my server migration. I've only had one issue with Softlayer and their customer service wasn't as good as I was used to with The Planet. Between the data transfer speed issues I've noticed and the customer service I'll probably go back to The Planet when I need more server space and have to migrate to a bigger server again.

Over all, though, I haven't had any problems with Softlayer so I don't have any big complaint(s).

[Gharibe]

Dedicated Server with my Partner Alex on PacificRack.com (http://PacificRack.com)