A Small Orange and Other Web Hosting

[Skhilled]

I recently told Ken, again, about moving to A Small Orange Hosting for better service and more space, etc.

http://asmallorange.com

However, lately it takes almost a week for them to respond to my tickets! They do have Live Chat and usually respond to that right away. But here's the reason why for the poor change in service. They were acquired by EIG (Endurance International Group) which owns many of the larger hosting companies and have a bad reputation of bringing companies down. Here's their site:

https://www.endurance.com

Here's the companies they currently own:

http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/blog/site-updates-news/the-who-what-when-of-endurance-international-group-eig/

Here's a review of ASO and EIG explaining why their support has waned:

http://reviewsignal.com/blog/2016/01/19/the-rise-and-fall-of-a-small-orange/

ASO was the best hosting I've ever had in all my years on the net!!! After buying them out it is slowly going in the toilet and people are leaving by the droves! So, my search continues for reliable hosting. So far, I've found these 3 which have been rated the best according to my search (in no specific order):

https://www.siteground.com - Site Ground (I do faintly remember something that I don't like about them but can't remember what it is yet)

https://www.a2hosting.com - A2 Hosting

https://www.mddhosting.com - MDD Hosting

I'll keep you guys updated. You can also find out anything you wish about hosting (anything about hosting) at Web Hosting Talk:

http://www.webhostingtalk.com

This site will even teach you how to run your own hosting service! This is where Les and I learned how to run Tinyportal Hosting years ago.

[Maxx]

I like Bluehost.com, been using them for 10years now and they keep getting better. Host as many domains as you wish, the first on is free register!

Always fast for me I have many site live and testing there!

regards,
Maxx

[Skhilled]

Sorry, but I've had poor service with them while helping others with it. This was some years ago so I can't say how their service is now but I've pretty much have used or helped people with mostly all of the companies own by EIG and the service and support was horrible. I refuse to use companies owned by them.

Keeping in mind that I've had people praise hosting that are owned by them (EIG) but my experiences with them have not been good once they take over a company and the reviews of many review sites show it.

[Maxx]

They just put us on new servers a few months back. Most things I figure out myself. and I have he back up restore pro, so if I screw up, just restore

Dedicated IP also..

maxx

[Skhilled]

ASO has R1Soft Backups for up to a week ago. I always try to get hosting with backups like that. They'll save your butt. LOL

[Ken.]

I'm watching this with great interest... I need this backup function.

[Ken.]

This review of SiteGround by Hosting Facts sounds really good.

Brad Smith
Last updated: January 2, 2017
SiteGround is recommended by many on different blogs and forums.

SiteGround has amassed 450,000 domain names worldwide, with data centers across United States, Europe and even Asia.

Not bad, considering they started out with only one employee back in 2007, making them one of the youngest behemoths in hosting today.
Siteground review: Their growth

That's an impressive ascent, so they must be doing something right to achieve such heights faster than many of its predecessors.

1. Uptime much higher than promised, almost 100%
2. They're FAST (Top 3 in our Speed Test)
3. How about Support? We think it's Good.
... much more detail on the page linked below.

https://hostingfacts.com/hosting-reviews/siteground/

[Skhilled]

I've read that link including the reviews from users at the bottoms of the page. Sounds except the review about paying monthly:

JK
30/100 October 27, 2016

Don't use monthly billing.

SiteGround makes you call in every month if you have monthly billing. If you don't CALL them, they will automatically bill you for a year. This is designed to make you forget one month so that you're automatically charged. It is unlike literally every other service provider in the world.
Also don't be fooled by their introductory rate. The real rates are much higher and hidden.

That was a red flag for me since I prefer to pay monthly. Most hosting will not refund unused moths if you terminate the account before the year is up. Also if paid monthly, I leave and there should be no problem with further payments.

I've also read the reviews of A2 Hosting and MDDHosting on that same review site. Both sound good but for A2 Hosting there seems to be a security flaw as started by one reviewer:

Evan
1/100 May 5, 2016

MASSIVE security flaw!

Just signed up for A2 based on the high praise here (and elsewhere on the web). However, I am instantly cancelling the account based on this discovery: The username and password for the main cPanel user—the one with access to every file, database and setting on the server—is displayed in clear text on the client portal. This is on a page called "change password."


I changed the user's password within cPanel itself, which made the information displayed on the portal page inaccurate, however I was then able to use that page to change the password again WITHOUT VERIFYING THE CURRENT PASSWORD. So if anyone managed to compromise the billing account for A2, they'd also have effortless root access to the web server.


Utterly appalled at this "feature."

I am not sure if that has been changed since then and I've emailed them and am awaiting a response which I'll repost here.

For MDHosting, the downside seems to be their uptime...slightly less than the others but still not bad at all.

During my search today, I've also found another promising hosting called Squidix:

https://squidix.com/hosting/shared/

I googled it and they seem to have great reviews! The ONLY downside that I've found is there's nothing mentioned about backups of any kind. So, I've emailed them and am also waiting a response back form them which I'll post here, too!

[Maxx]

I love the back up option, many things can happen, and the restore of all your domains can be done in minutes, I think it only cost a few bucks per year. I'm running maybe 6 domains and many subs, for testings.. I test all the forums and CMS systems I can find....in hope that I can find something as good as SMF and with out paying big bucks for plug-ins!

regards,
Maxx

[Skhilled]

It took A2 Hosting and Squidix a little over 4 hours each to respond. first is A2 Hosting's response:

Hello,

Than you for contacting A2 Hosting. The cPanel Password is able to be displayed in the Customer Portal. This password can be changed, and the if it is changed by the customer, the password shown will no longer be correct, and the "quick access" from the customer portal will no longer function.

We do offer Two-Factor-Authentication for the Customer Portal.

If you are concerned about security, you are able to the two factor authentication, as well as change the password for the cPanel.

At this time, we do not have two factor authentication for our managed cPanel offerings, as this would cause us to not be able to manage the servers effectively, but for greater security, you could consider an unmanned hosting option.

--
Regards,
Jeff H.
A2 Hosting Support Guru

So, basically yes, it does not obfuscate the password (hide while typing) and there was no verification when changing a password. However, I have seen this before in other hosting client areas. Also, 4 hours is a long time to wait if your site is down but the ticket was "low" priority. I can't tell if it was set to a higher priority would they have answered faster or not.



Squidix's response:

Hello Stephen,

We don't touch base strongly about backups, however backups are maintained consistently, and you'll always have access to backups created.

Backups are performed once weekly, on-site and off-site.

There're no fees to restore backups, this is an essential service that we feel the industry is obligated to provide as part of hosting services.

Granted, we will always restore backups for our customers, we use discretion when multiple requests are made (e.g. let's say you request a backup restoration on a daily basis, this would be outside the scope of support and we would provide you the backups to restore on your end). We will however always restore backups upon request within reason.

--
Larry Wright
Squidix Management

There is no mention of how a client can make backups. However, their take on it is very reasonable. We would not need them to restore backups daily or hardly at all so it sounds good so far.

[Skhilled]

My reply to Squidix:

Thank you for the response, Larry.

That sounds very reasonable. But do you provide a backup feature included in cPanel such as the standard one that is usually seem in most hosting or provide or backup for the customer to use (make their own backup copies) whenever they would like to have one?

Their reply within 15 minutes:

Hello Stephen,

Absolutely! Backups will always be available to you, and you'll have access to all retention dates of your backups on file. This includes 3 weeks worth of backups on a weekly basis.

--
Larry Wright
Squidix Management

Sounds like a winner although slightly more expensive.

[Ken.]

The Squidix 10GB plan looks like it would suit my needs, but they don't give a lot of detail on the what's in the plan.

[Skhilled]

Read the entire page...what's below the cost and that's everything included with those packages. Unless there's something else you're looking for...

[Ken.]

Then I guess there is more reading/research in my Squidix future! 

[Skhilled]

Was there something else you were looking for in hosting that you did not see there?