Questions about our services? The answers are likely
to be found below. If not, please feel free to email
us!
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Answer |
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What is Hosting Solutions's
connectivity to the net? |
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Our connectivity is truly TOP NOTCH. Our dedicated 100 MBPS Fast
Ethernet is connected to a Tier 1 backbone network consisting
of a fully meshed, ATM OC-12, which is multi-homed with three
different carriers for ultimate redundancy. Our new state of
the art data center is fully managed and maintained by us. The
only thing between us and the OC-12 backbone are our network's
redundant Cisco 7500 series routers. There is no better connectivity
on the net from ANY point.
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What has your network's
uptime been? |
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Our network uptime has been over 99.9957% since July of 1997.
We fully expect this trend to continue or even get better.
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I see you use Linux
OS with Apache. Why don't you use NT servers? |
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In our experience, it has been PROVEN time and time again that
for reliability, speed and maximum uptime, Windows NT simply
cannot compete with our custom Linux/Apache configuration which
has proven its reliability and stability many times over. When
it comes to high volume adult servers, you simply can't settle
for a potentially unstable operating system. We will continue
testing NT systems until we can develop a configuration that
can meet our stringent demands. When that happens, we will set
up plans for NT.
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I see lots of providers
offering cheap rates and unlimited bandwidth. Why doesn't Hosting
Solutions offer unlimited bandwidth? |
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The answer to that is simple. Quality bandwidth, especially on
the network we have, costs money, REAL money. There is NO such
thing as free bandwidth. An unfortunate reality in the web hosting
business is that there are many "bargain basement"
outfits that offer deals with rates so low that they are simply
too good to be true. The fact is that these companies simply
sell oversubscribed connectivity on overcrowded servers. In other
words, they are selling more resources than they are buying.
They are in it for the fast buck. They know that there is an
almost constant turnover in this business and don't care about
keeping long-term customers. We chose not to take that route.
Our service is TOP QUALITY, and we want our clients to stay and
grow with us for years to come. Remember, infrastructure is EVERYTHING
in this business. If your visitors can't get to your site and
see any real speed or quality, you might as well hang it up.
You are not going to make it in the internet business. Don't
skimp on your infrastructure, it's a fatal mistake that unfortunately
is all too commonly made.
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I'm setting up a totally
new site and have no idea what my site's traffic will be. Which
plan should I choose? |
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In our experience, sites that are just starting out will more
than likely be fine on a virtual server plan. Most of our new
site clients start with a virtual plan. As your site develops
and builds traffic, you can easily scale up to a more suitable
plan. We can techsupport you determine this when the time comes. So
if you're starting out, unless you are setting up a site with
highly specialized applications and/or live multimedia, ALWAYS
go with a virtual plan. It will save you LOTS of money in the
beginning and allow your site's infrastructure to grow only as
it needs.
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I didn't see anywhere
on your site that you offer colocation services, do you not offer
colocation of my own server on your network? And if so, why not? |
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We do provide colocation services on our network on a case-by-case
basis. But we no longer actively market it as a service. We feel
there is no longer any advantage to the customer to own their
own server and colocate it on a data center. In fact, we feel
that companies who offer colocation do so because they know it's
a more profitable proposition for themselves, even though it's
not in the customer's best interest. Now that servers are relatively
inexpensive compared to just a few years ago, there is no comparison
to leasing our equipment and software, letting us take the FULL
responsibility for maintaining and administrating it, backing
it up, and keeping your server with a proven system. Those who
try to tackle this on their own by colocating, find in the long
run that it's a MUCH more expensive proposition both in money
and in time, than going the full leasing route. The advantages
of outsourcing your server needs to us are far too numerous to
mention. Some of the obvious benefits are: No need to keep buying
new hardware everytime your current hardware gets obsolete; when
we upgrade server plans to a new configuration, ALL our existing
servers running get upgraded as well; no tech time charges for
repairs; no charges for parts replacement; no need to administrate
your own servers (busy adult servers NEED to be monitored and
administrated 24/7 in SOME way!); the benefit of having a PROVEN
configuration of Linux and Apache running on your server; MAXIMUM
security via our firewall and monitoring system; automatic daily
backups at NO additional charge (find ANY colocation facility
that does this, you won't!). We can go on and on... Our advice
is simple, if you're thinking about colocating, sit down and
crunch the numbers, factor in all the variables. You will SEE
that there is no way colocation beats outsourcing the whole server
in the long run at any price. If any provider is pushing colocation
on you, it's because they know this and they know that they will
make more money off you going that route. We refuse to play this
game.
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I've noticed that you've
changed your pricing on data transfer from the "per GB per
month" to "per kilobits per second" model on all
your dedicated server plans. What's up with that? |
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Here at Hosting Solutions, we always strive to find ways to make
our pricing fairer and more customer-friendly. As broadband becomes
more prominent, bandwidth usage will only continue to increase.
We know it is important that webmasters be able to leverage their
investment in infrastructure to their fullest. Thanks to our
latest expansion, and hot new connectivity, we are now able to
offer a more flexible, cost-effective way of billing for bandwidth
usage by our dedicated server clients. Before, because we bill
for services in advance, projections needed to be made based
on data gathered from our clients server stats and logs. It was
pretty simple and straightforward. We monitored all of our servers'
traffic, and made projections based on total data transfer per
server. For example, if we have a client who by the middle of
the month is averaging 2 GB's per day of transfer, it was easy
for us to project that by the end of the month, this client will
have done 60 GB's of total data transfer, and we would bill based
on this amount. Only problem was that each required us to "reconcile"
the client's account based on whether they went over or under
that projected amount. Thus creating a situation where we either
owed some clients money or they ended up owing us more money
because of their bandwidth uasge we billed for. We think we found
a better way. Instead, we include a DEDICATED bandwidth allocation
for each server on our Network. For example, our Dedicated Plan
A includes your first 125 kilobits per second (kbps). To explain
what this means, if your server transferred 125 kilobits per
second constantly over the course of one month, your server will
have pushed over 40 GB's of data. But the beauty of our pricing
is that we only bill you based on your AVERAGE usage. This means
that if your site for some reason spikes to 1 Mbps (1 Megabit
per second), but it only lasts for a short time, then it will
not dramatically affect your cost, because your average will
still hover at around what you have been doing during the course
of the whole month. If your server's traffic DOES start to gradually
increase to a higher average usage level, we simply add another
125kbps increment, or however many increments needed, of bandwidth
allowance to your server to meet your average demand for bandwidth.
We feature REAL-TIME reporting on our servers that shows you
EXACTLY what your server is doing bandwidth-wise, 24/7 (For an
example of this, please Click Here.) The result: your bandwidth cost
will always be accurately measured with no surprises at the end
of the month. You will be able to leverage your cost tremendously
by allowing your server's traffic to burst higher than your allocation
for short periods of time without being charged extra for it.
AND, best of all, you will find you're paying far less "per
GB" than you would have been on our OLD "per GB/month"
pricing model. Which, incidentally, is how many of our competitors
STILL bill for their bandwidth usage. =)
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I see lots of providers
offering virtual server plans that let me go up to as high as
100 GB's per month transfer on it. Why doesn't Hosting Solutions
let me set up a virtual account that will let me transfer that
much bandwidth? |
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We get this question a lot, and quite frankly we find it UNBELIEVABLE
that any provider worth their salt would sell virtual accounts
setup to do this much traffic. Here's why we don't do it. We
know the limits of our servers and have NO desire to push those
limits, even remotely. We know that the high demands on internet
servers require ours to perform, and perform well. A server that
supports many virtual accounts has these accounts all sharing
the memory, cpu, disk and other system resources of that server.
That means that these resources have to be somewhat evenly distributed
among all the accounts to maintain a standard of quality and
speed of service. If we allowed virtual accounts to reach such
high traffic levels, this would WITHOUT A DOUBT dramatically
degrade the speed, reliability and performance of all of the
sites running on this server! We refuse to let that happen. We
don't care what ANY other provider does or says, we are CONVINCED
that if a site does more than 35-40 GB's a month of traffic,
it should run on NO LESS than on its own dedicated machine.
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Can I send bulk email
(spam) to promote my site? |
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Our network has a ZERO TOLERANCE policy on spamming. We are required
to immediately deactivate any accounts who spam in conjunction
with their site on our network (whether they actually use our
network to do the spamming or not.) without refund. Our advice
is simple, if you plan on spamming, don't set up with Hosting
Solutions.
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What about posting to
Newsgroups? |
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Unauthorized or blatant advertising postings on newsgroups is
considered spamming. That means NO. Always consult a newsgroup's
posted FAQ to make sure you understand its policies before posting
ANY notes on it.
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I live in a foreign
country, will you register my domain name? |
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In most cases, it is better for the client to register their
domain name with any foreign NIC authorities. If you choose to
have a .com, .org, or .net address, we'll gladly submit those
for you regardless of where you live. If you end up needing to
register your domain with your country's own NIC authority, we
will provide you with all the nameserver information you need
from our end to do so quickly and easily.
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What about copyrights
and licensed materials, am I required to have permission to post
any material? |
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Absolutely, it is your responsibility to have CLEAR, WRITTEN
permission and/or OWN the copyright of any materials you wish
to publish on your site. Sites holding pirated images, software
or other materials will be shut down immediately without refund.
This includes music MP3's, WAREZ, crackz, hackz and gamez, NO
EXCEPTIONS!
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Can you guarantee that
if I set up my site with you that I'll be successful? |
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You wouldn't believe how often we're asked this. The answer is
while we can guarantee that you will get the best connectivity,
reliability and speed from our network, which will surely enhance
your success, we can't guarantee your success. Nor should you
expect your provider to do so. It is up to you, the site owner
to make your site a success and profitable venture. We'll gladly
techsupport you any way we can, but ONLY YOU can do the work that it
takes to make your site successful.
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I want to build my own
site but have no idea how to design or program a site, can you
techsupport? |
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We have a vast network of designers and programmers who can techsupport
make your visions for your site a reality. Just email us and
we'll get you set up with whatever techsupport you need.
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I'd like to see some
of your client sites so I can see how well they perform, will
you give me a list of client sites? |
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Certainly, just drop us an email, we'll give you a list of some
of our client sites.
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I'm with another provider
and am unhappy with their service, but they have great rates.
Will you match their rates? |
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We refuse to get into any kind of price matching games with cheap
providers. You can bet the reason that you're not happy with
the service you're getting is because the price you're paying
can't pay for quality servers and infrastructure. In this business,
you get EXACTLY what you pay for. If you want speed and quality,
you may need to pay more to get it. Just remember, having a fast
and reliable server doesn't cost, it PAYS.
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I am friends with other
web site owners or webmasters, if I refer them to you, will you
give me a commission? |
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ABSOLUTELY. We've built our business on referrals and believe
in paying our clients back for them! Our standard policy is that
we will give you a one-time 20% commission of whatever monthly
fee your referral pays us. We pay all referral commissions at
the end of your referral's first month with us.
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Can I become a reseller
for Hosting Solutions? |
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Sure! Go to our reseller's
area to find out more.
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