Web Side Attractions

So, I few months ago I began the search for a Web Host, both for this personal site, and a site for a project. I quickly found that finding information about web hosts was as difficult as finding out what really happened in Dealey Plaza on November 22, 1963. I was particularly looking for a Rails host, as the project I’m working on is Rails based. So I headed over to the RoR wiki page on Rails Hosts.

Now while certaintly offering a plethera of choices it lacked little in the way of reviews, or any sort of information about peoples experiences. So I decided to search out some information. If anyone out there has ever done a Google search for Web Hosting Reviews you’ll now that while somewhat useful, it is not ideal. Mind you the current top entry actually provides some good advice, it doesn’t really offer reviews per se. In fact most of the results with a search like that seem to be thinly masked attempts at advertising, IMO. The best pieces of advice I read from various searches and wanderings was:

1. Look at forums posting on the Hosts forums. Usually they are open to the public and a good place to look.
2. Ask them questions. Ask the tech support and/or sales people on the phone AND email questions you want answers to. Gauging both detail (or technical understanding) of the response and quickness of the response.
3. Look for an uptime guarentee.
4. Finally, don’t make a big commitment right off away. Every host isn’t going to be perfect all the time, and isn’t perfect for every person or situation. Try them out for a few months 3 or 6 is probably good. If they seem to be meeting your needs, stick with it, otherwise move.

So, I decided that when I got a host and a blog set up, I would write about my experiences. I’m currently hosting with OCS Solutions. They are great so far. They pride them selves on offering the latest stable version of the software the run, We always run the most stable, production release of software on our web hosting servers. They also are extremely quick to respond to any tech support email. I haven’t had any urgent support requests yet, but for those they offer a phone number (really you could use the number anytime, but they ask that you only use it for emergencies). In fact, often times the the President and CEO, Rob, is the one to answer my questions, and respond to my requests. So far what I have needed is fairly basic and can’t really talk about how well their service deals with scaling, etc. but I am very happy with them so far.

Well if anyone wants to know more about my experiences with OCS, or finding a web host feel free to contact me (you can find my email on the about page).

Tags: web hosting, review

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