RE: FN-FORUM: hosting for the UK?

date posted 19th January 2008 22:14

Hi Claire,

I think simply choosing something that is based in the UK may actually =
be a
limiting factor for you; let me explain:

You are absolutely right that support must be contactable within =
business
hours - provided this is done, does it matter where the servers are? =
Hosting
is such a fiercely competitive business, that it pays to look around; I
would say that this should not just be in the UK. I know some will say =
that
there are disadvantages with this (such as SEO), but is this really the
case, knowing how secretive the likes of Google are?

Putting anything onto a server is as good as pointless if you don't have
good support. I speak from experience - when I first got into =
freelancing
myself a year ago, I registered with a US based company where I was =
still
waiting to get a site fully registered and usable 2 weeks after first
signing up. Things got so bad, I was flamed on their support forums -
needless to say I soon left in disgust, at a company's apparent basic
inability to provide a good service.=20

I went to a second company, which so far has been OK for me - this is =
based
in Greece though, but support to date has been OK. However, my current
hosting provider (the second of 2 accounts I have overall) is Servwise.
These guys really do provide excellent help; Sam is based in Italy, and =
Paul
in Australia, but the servers are in the US. Does this matter? In some
respects this is actually good - it provides _true_ 24 hour support, and =
not
what some companies claim to provide! It is because of this, that I have
never used a reselling service that has entirely been based in the UK - =
it
is usually too expensive, or reputation has been less than satisfactory. =
(I
should clarify - Servwise do charge in sterling, in 1 month and block
periods).

If support that is available during UK hours is crucial, then a UK =
company
may be the better choice, based purely on times. However, if you are =
looking
for a company that offers good support, and can be contactable during UK
business hours, then I would not limit myself to just the UK - I'd have =
a
look a little further afield. To give one example - .com domain names. =
To
use a UK host would be foolish, as it is expensive - use a US domain
registrar, and get them for half the price, if you know where to look. =
OK -
with hosting, I have accounts based in the UK and Greece. This to me =
does
not matter - what is more important is the support; to date both have =
been
excellent (although Servwise provides the personal touch that the other
company doesn't!).

Good luck in whatever you go with - even if it is UK based, chuckle!

Alex.


-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL REMOVED] [EMAIL REMOVED] On Behalf Of
[EMAIL REMOVED]
Sent: 19 January 2008 22:49
To: FN-FORUM / [EMAIL REMOVED]
Subject: Re: FN-FORUM: hosting for the UK?


Thanks to all! I will investigate all the options suggested. To answer a
previous question from www.servwise.com, yes my main reason for uk based
hosting is the support.
>
> Claire.
>
> John Wooding wrote:
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> I remember reading some time ago that someone recommended Dreamhost=20
>>> for web hosting but they are based in the US. Does anyone have a=20
>>> recommendation for a UK-based host? It doesn't need to be all=20
>>> singing and dancing but I do need to be able to use php for the=20
>>> content management system and I also want to be able to contact=20
>>> their support team fairly easily during business hours...This is not =

>>> for a heavy website and needs to be as cheap as possible. I normally =

>>> use 123-reg but they do not provide php support.
>>>
>>> Many thanks,
>>>
>>> Claire.
>>>
>>> =20
>>
>> For reasonably cheap - c=A350 per year linux bronze hosting with =
MySQL
>> - I would recommend Zen, who are one of the best UK organisations for =

>> service levels.
>>
>> John
>>
>>
>> =20
>



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