unitedwebhosting vs Tera-Byte/ A+net review

[Gunsmith]

Argh, I wrote a whole big page on this but I forgot to post after doing the preview.

So this one will be less detailed.

A+net. The no1 ranked on CNET.com. I joined up with the Solo2 plan (9.95 a month, unlimited transfer, 500MB)

Yes, I now know that unlimited means anything!

My site grew rapidly. It's a video game site with a bulletin board. I wanted to know how much space and bandwith I was using but as soon as I had paid my initial fee, my "helpful" salesperson disappeared from the face of the planet and the technical support team was er... extremely busy. Must be the best case because I wrote frickin essays to them and only got 1 line answers after 2/4 days. I had to repeat the same questions time after time and still got the same ol answers from different people! They pointed me to a stats page for my site. I couldn't for the life of me understand it. It seemed to ac***alate hits and bandwith as a total for the time I had my site from the beginning. all in kbytes! I asked for help so many times. What did I get? 1 line replies on a question of their choosing.

Then, bang, site dead. Shutdown. More emails sent. Finally, they said I was sucking up 26 Gig per month. I would need to be upgraded. Okay, fine, I said. I would have to reupload my site on the new server. Well, er, I would IF I COULD GET INTO IT! Run around, run around. Site dead for 2 weeks. Salesperson must have died. Emails emails, more redirecting to other people and retelling of my story. I get to learn the great news that the admin in charge of the servers left the company and the new guy has no idea where my old server is. I got down on my knees and practically gave everyone oral sex. More one liners. "Go talk to your salesperson" haha haha.... *cue maniac laughter* Oh, and the upgrade account would allow me infinite space, 27.50 p/m and... 3 Gig transfer a month. WAHAHAha!

I'll be nice and say that the server was smooth, great even. But the support... ugh. If you got a small and simple site, I recommend A+net. Otherwise, stay the hell away.

So anyway, I'm looking for a new server!

I noticed Frosty's support for unitedwebhosting and a mention of Tera-byte.

Here's the comparison. Got email replies for further questions too! Of course, initial emails don't impress me however quick they are to respond, because I am a potential sale.

United: Nice email. Basic looking site.
Tera: Blunt email. Nice looking site.
United: 30 gig transfer p/m, $3 per extra gig
Tera: 40 gig transfer p/m, $5 per extra gig
United: 2 GIG webspace
Tera: 200 Meg webspace

Both have no setup fees for this specific high end plan.

Has anyone any other recommendations or even experience with these companies (apart frm Frosty of course! Thanks for finding these guys!) ?

I need my site back up, but I don't need to get burned again. I fear my bb posts are gone for good. That took a year to build from scratch...

[Martie]

I do recommend http://www/tera-byte.com
for clients needing more than 8gb month.
If you signed up there and needed a dedicated server, it should be easy enough to move from a shared account to a dedicated.
Try searching.
http://www.webhostdir.com/hostsearch/

[Colin]

I'm planning a games site myself, and have been shopping around for the right host.

My final 3 choices came down to these:
1. A+ (websolo.com)
2. Tera-Byte (tera-byte.com)
3. Global Internet Systems - GIS (globalinternet.net)

Here are some of my findings and experience contacting them.

Reason Chosen
1. A+: Advertised on C/net (download.com)
2. Tera-Byte: Recommended by friend who is a customer
3. GIS: Recommended by friend who is a customer

Disk space
1. A+: 500mb (Solo II plan)
2. Tera-Byte: 99mb (Plan 4 plan)
3. GIS: 100mb (Web Choice plan)

Bandwidth
1. A+: Unlimited (as advertised)
2. Tera-Byte: 20gb
3. GIS: Unlimited (as advertised)

ASP and PHP support
1. A+: Neither
2. Tera-Byte: Both (PHP4)
3. GIS: PHP3

Site Speed - ping averages (tested from download.com)
1. A+: 34ms
2. Tera-Byte: 31ms (although hit 100-odd once)
3. GIS: 94ms (although hit 100-odd once)

Email Response Time
1. A+: No response to my first email. Sent another 2 days later, and 1 more the next. Finally received a response on the 4th day - What, you guys don't want my business?
2. Tera-Byte: Less than 2 hours
3. GIS: Less than 2 hours

Email Attitude
1. A+: Blunt 1-line answers (come and think of it, each answer was less than 5 words)
2. Tera-Byte: Blunt 1-line answers, but not 3-5 words per answer type.
3. GIS: Very detailed answers, and very friendly. The first time I've ever had someone tell me "it will be our pleasure to have you onboard" (sure, he could be patronising me, but at least he made an effort, and I feel good about it)

Bandwidth Exceeded Policy
(asked in each email)
1. A+: No answer, and not going to write another email to do so
2. Tera-Byte: US$5/gb exceeded
3. GIS: Admitted to the fact that they cannot provide "true" unlimited bandwidth, but assured me that in such a case they will notify me and work out a solution instead of shutting me down without warning.

Since I haven't signed up with any of them (I'm planning for a June launch), I cannot comment on their quality. However, if A+'s support is anything like their sales division...you know...

I'm still deciding on whether to go with Tera-Byte or GIS. I'm concerned about the bandwidth and speed issues at the moment since I plan to have video and audio files available for download. I'm not sure if I'll exceed 20gb regularly, or if I'll even come anywhere close to 20gb in the first place. Then again, sometimes it takes forever for my friend's GIS-hosted pages to load.

Decisions...decisions...

[yourdomainhost]

Originally posted by Colin
Bandwidth
3. (***): Unlimited (as advertised)

Bandwidth Exceeded Policy
3. (***): Admitted to the fact that they cannot provide "true" unlimited bandwidth, but assured me that in such a case they will notify me and work out a solution instead of shutting me down without warning.


Am I interpreting this correctly? You believe that they engaged in deceptive advertising; they offer you only a vague and unspecified "solution" to excess bandwidth usage; they don't define what "excess" is; but you're still considering them because they were friendly when they lied to you?

I'd go with the one that told you the truth up front, and specifies exactly what happens if you go over. Fewer surprises that way. Companies shouldn't be rewarded for lying to people, anyway.

James

[Dan]

Avoid anyone that advertises "unlimited bandwidth" ... it just isn't possible.

Tera Byte - 20 gigs of bandwidth in Plan 4 is very generous for $99/year.

- Dan

[Technics]

Tera-byte are good. Been with them since Early last year. I was on the plan with 20gb bandwidth.

I now have a dedicated RAQ3 with them and would say to anyone ... give em a try youll be suprised at how good they are.

[JTY]

From what I have heard about Tera-byte, they seem like a great provider. I use to host a site with one of their colo customers, and the network performance was great, as was uptime.