UKWSD Hosting Dilema

maton · 13th November 2007

Hi All
I'm new to this area, so be gentle with me if this is something already discussed.

Has anyone else had a bad experience with UKWSD ??? Are they really sooo bad?

We are a web/graphic design company and we historically use Fasthosts for all our sites - windows based.

We then had a requirement for Linux hosting and thought we would try someone else as the Fasthosts control panel/webmail etc is rubbish.

We started using UKWSD and in the last 9 months we have had no end of issues with them :

- write permissions being changed (repsonse was ... it wasn't us!!)
- server crash with last backups recovered that were 6-8 weeks old, then a week later, "oh we found some more recent ones and we uploaded it for you", over the repair work we had to carry out over the last week, what a waste of our time.
- no command prompt access (my programmer guy says thats crazy, its above me, sorry )
- and worst of all .. no CONTACT NUMBER. Yes, quick email replies agreed, but email sometimes isn't good enough.

So what am i saying ??

. . . can anyone suggest a more reliable hoster than UKWSD and with a better control panel than Fasthosts, with a support contact number and good reliable UPTIME, and can support both Windows and Linux.

I am looking to bring both accounts to them in the NewYear if they are suitable.

We are now looking for a dedicated Linux server company to transfer our stuff to, and if all is ok we will the move all Fasthost stuff to a dedicated Windows server with the same company.

Thanks in advance for any help and advice.

Jon-NC · 13th November 2007

Out of interest what kind of package to you have with UKWSD?

maton · 13th November 2007

Hi
We have a 15GB shared package and this was upgraded to include another 10GB package due to our requirements increasing more than expected this year - and during this addition was when the write permissions went all over the place !!!
But it wasn't anything they could have done !! apparently.

Regards
Stuart

JamieBeeston · 13th November 2007

The level of support and access you get will depend on the budget category you fall under.

< £100 a yr, you get what you're given
> £100 < £2000 a year, I'd expect you to have command prompt (shell) access, but maybe not telephone tech support 24/7 and you should really keep your own backups
> £2k a year then yes, what you're asking for should be provided in all cases.

Enjoy.

J

maton · 13th November 2007

Thanks,
We fall into the 2nd group, so you confirmed what we thought, and Fasthosts provide Tel support too for the same price.

We do back up all our stuff, of course, and the annoying part was that when their servers crashed, they uploaded the best backup they had, which was 8 weeks old and said Tuff , basically.

So we started the process of uploading our and seeing what was needed - luckily not much would need to be done extra (phew). We were half way through it when they found some more backups and instead of asking if we wanted them, they just uploaded them.

In 7 years of FH we have never been treated so badly, and from our side both are supposedly supplying the same package to us.

Thanks for your help.

PeteK · 13th November 2007

Do you not have a million problems a week with Fasthosts anyhow.. Lord I think back to our reseller and colo days there and I'm not sure a day went by we didnt have problems...

PeteK · 13th November 2007

By the way if you are on their current 15gig reseller package, you can have your own server for the price they charge!

maton · 13th November 2007

1. FH - the only issue i have with FH is the rubbish interface in webmail and conrtol panel ... but it works and we have had nearly no issues in the last few years. Nothing major anyway.

2. I see we can get a dedicated, even with FH, but we need multiple IP's too. Or a way for our clients to access FTP if required.

Any pointers always welcome, we are at a point where we need to go dedicated - a scary thought but a necessity.

We have a potentially large Community site going live in December and we dont want to put it on UKWSD due to their performance.

Thanks again.

PeteK · 13th November 2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by maton

1. FH - the only issue i have with FH is the rubbish interface in webmail and conrtol panel ... but it works and we have had nearly no issues in the last few years. Nothing major anyway

I believe you are lucky in that case. Do you actually monitor your site availability external to FH network. They have a very odd approach of announcing their AS across two different networks with equal priority and there are numerous flips between upstream providers generally giving poor availability.

Quote:

2. I see we can get a dedicated, even with FH, but we need multiple IP's too. Or a way for our clients to access FTP if required.

You can use a single IP for both www and ftp if you wish, but any real provider will offer more than one IP with little justification. It would only be an issue if you wanted 16 IPs on one server and had no justification. But bearing in mind SSL sites need dedicated IPs, it is not uncommon to find quite a number justifiably allocated to a single server.

As I am sure you are aware much of the cost of the dedicated server is made up of the power consumption (and hence facility costs re air-con, UPS and generation) and the transfer bandwidth required.

If you are clear on your requirements (processor size, disk space and bandwidth) then it is feasible to provide a dedi server within the offering UKWSD have on the table and its yours, hence you get a root login etc etc.

Jon-NC · 13th November 2007

Stuart,

I'd recommend you look at some form of managed virtual private server in which you could customise to your exact needs as you develop new websites.

The least thing you want to worry about is your web hosting and having something fully managed (not just patched etc) will help.

Post in the requests part of the forum for offers. Hosts can't advertise out of the requests section.

maton · 13th November 2007

Thanks for that Jon
As i said at the start, i am new to all this so i feel i can ask this question.

Whats the difference between Shared, VPS and dedicated - i assume this is
the correct order. I have never seen VPS offered by FH or UKWSD.

And thanks for letting me know about the Requests section - i dont want to go in there till i know a bit more - they might bite ;-)

Thanks
Stuart

chrisbyrd · 13th November 2007

Sounds odd. I've only ever heard good things about UKWSD in the past

Jon-NC · 13th November 2007

Shared is one server with many websites on. Usually at a set standard configuration, I.E. no ssh etc.

VPS is a virtual private server. You have your own secure configurable part of a server but not a whole server. So there could be 4 virtual servers on one server.

Dedicated is a server just for you.

Probably not the best explanation but I'm knackered

.

Once you roughly know what you require pop your specifications in the requests section for prices and offerings.

PeteK · 13th November 2007

A shared server is usually hosting 10s or hundreds of sites - we have some that have over a thousand low usage domains on them.

A VPS is generally purchased in a similar way to a dedicated server. It is a disk image running on powerful hardware which you have complete control of as if its a dedicated server. You buy a "commit" to the resource, so you may specify you want a server than performs like a P4 2.4Ghz machine with a commit of memory of (say) half a gig. Some hosts offer burstability where if there is free memory or processing capacity you get more, but you are in effect buying a contended platform (potentially) and they tend to be expensive if you want a large commit of processor or disk. They are generally resilient (i.e. twin PSUs, mirrored disks etc) as it is not worth the providers salt to offer such a platform on commodity hardware.

A dedicated server is literally that, its like sticking your own PC/Server in someone elses space with your choice of OS/apps/mail etc. except it is not ususally "your" server, as in the ISP provides it and not you. Some hosts offer pre-installed dedi servers which would come with Centos or similar and Apache etc and you can install anything that is missing. Some hosts also offer control panels if you wish, or you can get down and dirty with SSH if you prefer. We (and most others) also offer Windows dedis too, but they will be a little more expensive (5 or 10 a month) as Web Editions or Standard edition have a licensing cost to the ISP. Most hosts offer a range of spec of dedicated hardware with a reflection on the cost, and usually also offer mirrored disks etc. Most also allow customisation (more memory, bigger disks etc)

The alternative is co-location where it physically is your equipment configured exactly how you want re hardware and software and its just hosted by the ISP.

Your costs all of these are usually governed by three factors:
1. Processor requirements
2. Disk requirements
3. Bandwidth requirements
and licensing if you want Windows / control panels etc.

Making a decision over the spec you require and the approach you want to take will save much time when you are asking for hosting quotes as they will only ask these questions!

maton · 14th November 2007

Wanted to say thanks to all for the help and advice - i am in discussion with someone about a VPS and fingers x'd all will be fine - they seem really helpful so far.
Thanks again, appreciated.