Skip to main content

Finding a Great Windows VPS Host

I have been hosting my web sites on WebHost4Life for a long time, and they have served me well for years. However, after they recently migrated to a new infrastructure I have experienced problems. They still offer a great budget hosting alternative for ASP.NET/SQL Server sites with lower system requirements, but I decided to take my business elsewhere.
I evaluated Windows VPS hosts that offer an isolated hosting environment for a good price. Here are the shortlist of the Windows virtual private servers that I considered:
1and1
I immediately recognized the brand from magazine ads. Their Windows VPS offerings are very attractive on paper, but their system specs seemed somewhat outdated, especially their choice of database server. They offer MSDE 2000, which Microsoft stopped supporting two years ago. I didn’t really see this as a showstopper, and sent a message to their sales department to understand if I would be able to upgrade the database server myself. After over 2 business days I am still waiting for a reply to this inquiry, or indication that they are looking into it. Needless to say, if this is the response time for sales requests, I don’t want to even think of how tech support works.
UltraHosting
This host has great reviews and they support Xen technology, which prevents them from overselling RAM – a common practice in the VPS space. Their prices are attractive, but a bit steeper than 1and1. I went ahead and decided to pay more for better quality and support. But, as I checked out my order I found out that they require a credit card to be associated with PayPal, a practice that most other online merchants don’t follow. This was a no go for me.
VPSLand
VPSLand offers great prices for great system specs. I was very close to choosing them, but then I read several online reviews about how they consistently suffer from downtime and slow pings. Perhaps they could have been a good host but I didn’t want to take the risk.
KickAss VPS
KickAss VPS has a great reputation in hosting forums, and good system specs to go with that. Their prices are a bit above the previous hosts, although they have a price guarantee. If you find a cheaper service with the same specs they match that price, and give you and additional 10% off. Also, they replied very quickly to my e-mail questions. This is the host I finally went with and I hope it will serve me for a long time.

Comments

  1. Jonas, I'd like to see you come up with a list of how to discover a great Linux VPS Hosting provider as well.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yes i m also waiting for your new list information regarding window hosting.

    ReplyDelete
  3. The Information you have given is common. But the web host services name provided by this blog are very cool and so much helpful.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

HOWTO: GTD with Google Docs & PocketMod

Take control of your unwieldy to do-list by combining Google Docs and PocketMod. With the system described here you will always be ready to take notes, and never run the risk of losing an idea! Update (July 30, 2009): Now using a Google Docs template. I use a subset of GTD (" Getting Things Done ") by having a digital copy of my next actions, sorted by context (@Home, @Office, @Shopping, @Computer, etc.). This lets me easily look up what I need to do, depending on where I am. However, a digital copy is not very useful by itself, since it is not accessible when I am offline. Putting it in my PDA is not ideal either, since the overhead of adding a new note is too big (turning on the device, opening the right application, having it recognize my handwriting). That's why I print out my to-do list on paper once a week and carry it in my pocket. It's the ideal way of accessing and editing tasks. Before I print out a new list I spend a minute or two copying the edits from my

HOWTO: Fix a Broken Laptop Lid for $1

A few months ago my laptop lid's hinges gave up and my lid kept falling over. I will show you how I fixed the problem in five minutes by using materials for $1. But first some background info. At first, I assumed there would be a quick and simple fix to this common laptop problem. My laptop is an Evo N800v. HP has bought Compaq since I purchased the computer so that's where I'm supposed to turn for help. I was kind of startled to hear that HP support wanted $500 for fixing the broken hinges - presumably they intended to replace the entire lid. Obviously, shelling out $500 for fixing a 6 year old laptop is not the way to go, so I started to look for alternative solutions. First, I disassembled the laptop numerous times, trying to make the hinges more sturdy (that's spelled S-U-P-E-R-G-L-U-E). Anyway, that didn't help. Option number two was to do something similar to what user xrobevansx did on instructables.com . Basically he bought a lid support in a hardware store

Reading on Paper vs. on Screen

One of the basic premises behind FeedJournal is that it's better to read text on paper than on a screen. While it might not sound like a bold assumption, it still is an assumption and as such worth to examine deeper. Today, office workers and many other professionals are required to focus their eyes on a computer screen during most of their work day. Many of them continue to use the computer at home. FeedJournal was created with many goals in mind; one of them is to release you from the screen while enabling you to read the content you love. You shouldn't have to spend more time reading off a screen, just because you want to access fresh and relevant content. Recent research has found that reading a longer text on paper is 25% faster than reading the same text on a computer screen. At the same time, reading comprehension and article overview are improved. Although screen resolutions have increased and font rendering technologies such as ClearType make it much easier to rea