UK Hosts?

Recommend a UK host?

[imgonnaseo]

Does anyone recommend a host in the UK or recommend staying away from a particular host? I have a client that needs a co.uk domain and, not being a UK person myself, would like some pointers.

thanks.

[Macro]

I've had problems with inetc.net. As is typical with most hosts ... let's say you have a problem today ...these are the steps you'll normally have to follow (hoops you'll have to jump)

1. You phone them to say that there's a problem
2. they take you through some steps on the phone and deny there's a problem
3. you prove to them that the problem exists
4. they reluctantly agree to have a look at it but only if you log a support call
5. you log a support call on their control panel (if it works - otherwise start from step 1 again)
6. nobody understands your message because the staff that handle these support calls can't see beyond their noses and if you haven't spent two hours typing up a very, very detailed message, they understand the problem to be something altogether different (usually they understand it to be a problem that they know the solution to rather than the problem that actually does exist)
7. they solve a problem of their choice (not yours)and close your support call
8. you start a new support call and type up your six page message (don't forget to include a glossary for terms like IP and domain and internet)
9. they deny that there's a problem
10. you see your doctor and get treated for stress
11. you prove to them that the problem exists
12. they admit there's a problem but blame you for it
13. you prove to them that it is not you
14. you log another support call (because the second one was closed on the assumption was that it was you who caused the problem)
15. they look at your problem
16. they've forgotten about you
17. you chase up the issue because it is now been weeks that your site's been down/your email doesn't work/you can't access the control panel
18. they say that they are now passing it to "second line" support because they haven't been able to find a resolution.
19. you see your doctor for a referral to a shrink
20. second line support says there's no problem and suggests that it must be you
21. you prove that it's not you but you can't talk to second line support as they don't take phone calls, and first line support doesn't pass your message/proof on
22. the shrink is not getting anywhere with the treatment and suggests you need to speak to your hosts and get rid of the the source of your stress i.e. the problem with your website.

.... so you go to step 1.

[Macro]

I do have better luck with another site hosted with a smaller company called databasepower but it's only been a few months with them so far.

On the plus side there is one site I host with a large US company who've been brilliant with support (except that I have to call them late in the night because of the time difference). But, as I said, that's not in the UK.

Note: As you probably know you don't need to have a host in the UK just because it's a .co.uk domain.

[Miop]

I would recommend Hostroute - choice of uk or us hosting (cheaper) and good uptime rate.
They do not have telephone support, but the few times I have contacted them, they have been on the case straight away and sorted it. They only let me down once which was in the middle of the night, but it was fixed by next morning with no extra input from me.

[linton]

You could research i-dentity.com who again are in the US but myself and contacts have never come across any problems with them. Guaranteed 99.9% uptime!

[HarryM]

I use Vision Internet Limited. The big advantage that I see is they have servers with fast connections throughout the UK and world wide. I have always found their support good, both telephone and email.

There is a link at the bottom of my home page which will take you direct to them! :)

[andy_boyd]

I use a small company called BeyondPerception who are based in Craigavon Northern Ireland. I have found them to be very good, flexible and open to requests. I've had no problem with downtime yet, which can't be bad. :-)

[dougie]

I am also looking for a good UK web host. There's a couple of good recomendations in this thread, but are there any others? It would be nice to have a choice of more than a couple.

Can anyone personally recommend a good UK web host please.
I have 3 web sites, one family of 9 pages, two business ones of 12 pages and the other 25 pages, the maximum amount of visitors for all 3 in total per day would be about 200 hundred per day. It has to be a UK web host.

As cheap as possible, but much more important is a good level of support, within 30 minutes of an email.

Any help appreciated.

Doug.

[tigger]

I use IAC Ltd they are very good and have a great tech department that actually answer the phones, if you want contacts details drop me a PM

[storevalley]

Can't recommend Host Europe highly enough. I have a number of sites with them through Webfusion, and have been using them for just over 12 months.

Control panel is spot on. List of features is generous. Telephone support is awesome (they answer within a minute ... even on Xmas day!), and they provide decent email support too.

Problems are rare, and quickly fixed.

[Macro]

Can anyone personally recommend a good UK web host please

databasepower.net aren't bad. Small company. Technical support is by a guy called Richard who knows what he's talking about. Don't ALL of you sign up with them as we don't want them to suddenly become big and indifferent :-)

[hartlandcat]

dougie -- for what you want, Compila [compila.com] would be the best choice by far. That's what I use, and it seems that I probably use about the same amount of webspace and bandwidth/data transfer as you. They've always responded to my emails when I've contacted them with problems (few that there have been), and they're extremely flexible.

[smatsmax]

had no probs with KDA web services, multiple domain hosting and good support

[John_Caius]

Try Force9 (ISP and website hosting).

[HarryM]

As cheap as possible, but much more important is a good level of support, within 30 minutes of an email

Don't forget speed of page download as perceived by the visitor. This depends to some extent to where the hosting company is positioned in the UK network. Some of the popular cheap hosting companies suffer in this respect.

"webperf" is a useful site which compares transfer rates. ISPs are graded by average over the month, but it is best to look at a sample daily result. The transfer rate is checked periodically from different locations throughout the UK, so the high and low points in the graph reflect the service visitors will experience in different parts of the country.

[lochdup]

I use clook.net and thoroughly recommend them. Jim, the owner, is exceptionally helpful and support is first class.

If you are going to use more than one domain have a look at the basic re-seller package. He has servers in the UK and the US. You can choose whichever you prefer.

Uses cPanel for individual accounts and WHM for the reseller access.

Also has good help forums, keeps up to date with security issues and gives plenty of notice if anything is likely to affect the servers.

Best hosting company I've ever been with

Chris

[Kirky]

I'm currently setting up my own UK Hosting company so I'm probably mad for recommending anyone else but as you're probably looking for a solution right now then try www.fasthosts.co.uk

I used to be with them and never had a problem. Their telephone support is 24-7 so time-delays aren't a problem and they have both Linux & Windows3k servers hosted on a load balanced cluster (helps spread out the workload on the servers and keeps domains running if a server goes down).

[adfree]

Do some research on rackspace.com, I am totally happy with them, pricy though, running 11 sites there, always humans on the phone, excellent response times, they operate data centers in the US and UK...

Sticky me if you want more details.

Jens