Registering & hosting .ie

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catherined61

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Can anyone give me an unbiased view of hosting companies?

When questions are asked about performance etc, one of the companies post on forums touting their wares and then another and then another.

I was leaning towards Blacknight as they appear helpful. There's spiral, hosted365 etc. What type of things should one be looking out for when it comes to hosting or is it they all just want the business?
 
I'm using blacknight to host a few domains and find their support to be good. I've no direct experience of the others. I chose blacknight because I specifically wanted IMAP instead of POP mail and wanted SMTP-Auth support and not POP-before-SMTP which at least one other I looked at did not provide - I don't remember which others I looked at.
 
Hosting365 are the countries largest host (and host this site) and provide IMAP (and SMTP auth) Dearg Doom (as well as a range of services) from 39.95 per year for the hosting, and have the lowest cost domain names also.

If your hosting / site is important to you, check out the host, perhaps even visit them in person, as many hosting providers are one or two man operations who resell space or servers from other larger (often not even Irish) providers.

Also worth checking out the support levels and availability - is support 24/7, does the host provide freephone access to the support team, etc.

<Disclosure> I work for hosting365
 
Hosting365 had a major problem a few months back, all the sites hosted
by them where down.
I felt they handled the problem and follow up very badly.

So I will be moving to Blacknight when my contract is up with H365.

Blacknight & Hosting365 are the major players in the Irish market.

I used to host in the states which was cheaper, but wanted to be able
to pick up the phone and talk to some one in Ireland if I had a problem.
When H365 had their problem you couldn't even contact their support.

Got with what ever company is the cheapest to register the domain name.
 
Register your domain via www.letshost.ie (cheapest in Ireland - I have about 50 domains with them.) They are nice guys as well.

I host with H365. Gotta say I find them very arrogant and their accounts department are atrocious. Saying all that... for shared hosting they are cheap and good and I would recommend you strongly consider them. I like their network speeds too.
 
Hi Flax,

Sorry you feel that way, we work hard to ensure our customers are happy. We are the only host offering true 24/7 support to all customers, and with 53 staff are by far the largest host in Ireland.

Feel free to PM or email me directly if you are dis-satisfied with any element of our service.
 
As a matter of interest, how many staff work in each of the main companies ?

I presume one domain seller is cheaper than the next because they hope that you will host with them ?
 
Have to agree on hosting365 - we are due to renew with them in the next few weeks. If you sign up to a new business account you can get it for about 48euro, however if you are an existing customer and just leave the credit card debit in place you will get charged the princely sum of 250euro. So it is the usual situation - they are relying on interia to screw their existing customers.

I rang to ask about this and the lady in the accounts section did not give a toss - I said I was thinking of moving to blacknight since they charge around the 50euro mark also and she didn't even offer to reduce to fee to the 50euro! She did say I could close my account and reopen it and they might give it to me for the 50euro - I said if I was closing it I would be moving it.

"Ok" - she said!
 
Hi pbyrne,

We can of course move you to the new plans - pm or email me directly and I will sort that out for you - stephen AT hosting365.com - we're in a transition phase at the moment with all the new systems and prices.

As for staffing, we currently have 54, Michele says 14, I think Irish Domains have 3, Novara 4 and Lethost 2?.
 
boskonay said:
As for staffing, we currently have 54, Michele says 14, I think Irish Domains have 3, Novara 4 and Lethost 2?.
Click to expand...

I've no idea about the others. Novara did have about 8 or so when I was in their offices a couple of years ago, but I've no idea how many they have now.
 
I've been hosting with Blacknight now for a while. I switched to them after having a terrible time with another Irish host. I have to say I'm very happy with them so far, and agree with you about them being helpful.

There are a few things you should look out for when deciding on a host but the two main points I suppose are...

1) Price - I guess most of the big players will be roughly similar, but just try to avoid those that charge excessive rates. You shouldn't be paying more than €50 for your .ie domain and a basic hosting package can be bought for as little as €30-€40.

2) Support - Being able to contact your host 24/7 is definitely an advantage, but most providers should be available when needed.
 
Price is key - hosting is a commodity these days in pretty much all things.

24/7 support is also key - what happens when you have a problem on a Saturday afternoon, never mind 11pm on a Friday after a few pints and you delete your database by accident :) :)
 
Hence me saying both price and support are important.

Price needs to be excellent and globally competetive, support needs to be 24/7 and 'useful' :)
 
Hosting is a service industry. You need all the normal stuff (pricing, features, reliability - thats the commodity bit) - but you live or die by your service delivery. No company is perfect, but the ones that grow to large scale, can only do so, and continue doing so, on the back of excellent service to most customers, most of the time.
 
I think we're talking about 'real' Irish Hosting providers. They don't even list contact info.
 
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