Well OT - ISPs Know of any good ones

[chris]

Dear All I am paying =A3250 a year for an ISP on which I put all my websites (about 5) and all my mail ( a huge file) for two email addresses with various alternatives. this firm serves businesses. Lately, its service has gone to seed and it failed to provide a back up for an email site that I had accidentally deleted. I use a CMS (Typo 3) to run my websites I know very little about this sort of thing and am merely a follower of a recipe operator rather than an original cook. My adviser has told me to go onto Google Apps for all my email and look for a server that can host my various websites. Question. Has anyone on this august body of experience and intelligence got any suggestions as to whom to go? Happy to pay for a service where I can pick up the phone and speak to a person who can speak English rather than Geek Computerese.

Chris

[Moonraker]

IdNet, of whom I am a user, have actual people on the phone. Also if you email them they phone you back very promptly, plus there is no charge, apart from standard call charges, to phone them. I don't know if they will fit you in other ways, but go to their web site and see.

[Peter Scott]

I use 1and1 for all the web sites I maintain. Their beginner service is cheap (just gone up to 2.99 a month I think) and they will host your domain names. I use Zen for my ISP and think they are great. Rarely down and good support. Not the cheapest though (17.99 a month).

I also use BritishNIC for hosting other domains and then route email and web addresses on to the relevant address. In some cases this is google mail or hotmail. Just whatever suits the situation best.

Peter Scott

[Nightjar]

I use Edge Hosting for my hosting, which, until recently, included several ecommerce sites. It was founded by a friendly and knowledgable chap who used to do all my IT support work. I have always found them to be efficient, fairly priced and comprehensible.

Bignell

[The Natural Philosopher]

On the latter point,. try IDnet.

[tony sayer]

In article , chris scribeth thus

Zen are very good with a call centre in a furrign land called Lancashire;)

They do know what their talking about too as well as being an excellent ISP..

Not the cheapest .. but U gets wot U pay 4 ;!...

[The Wanderer]

I'll second that, reliability is good, very good.

[Tim Watts]

Why are you still with them?

I use Andrews & Arnold. Not cheap but you get a helpdesk where an intelligent person answers, reliable service, status web pages which they are quite happy to admit to any issues on their side as well as BT's.

And if you are after more cutting edge, eg lots of static IPs, IPv6, VoiP etc they are good.

[Dave Osborne]

Some of the replies here are suggesting ISP's (who don't really do hosting) and some are suggesting hosting services (who don't provide internet service).

I would (and do) split hosting and ISP. This means I can change one without affecting the other.

As far as ISPs go, Zen and Andrews and Arnold both get my vote.

As far as hosting goes, I would steer clear of 1&1 and Fasthosts who get a lot of criticism (Google for the name of your proposed provider and "problems" e.g. Google for "1&1 problems".

I use Hostgator, which is based in the USA and with which I am very happy. However, if you have mission-critical e-commerce sites and you end up with a co-located server, then ultimately, the ability to jump in the car and visit a data centre may be something you want to consider.

If you're anywhere near the Thames Valley, then poundhost in Maidenhead has a good reputation (although I haven't used them for a few years and they've grown considerably and gone upmarket in the interim).

HTH