Webhostingstuff.com

    infinitie.net – When a 2 star host is all you want

    infinitie.net is my sixth host review of 8 hosts for October 2010 webhostingstuff.com’s top 25.   When I first wrote up my review for whs in late October of 2010 the first thing that came to mind was this host had a 2 star ratine, or in my own thinking a 40% approval rating.  By grade school standards that means this host is failing.  The site itself is a poor design, and it appears that there has not been an update on the site in 2 years.  But the point is they are supposed to be one of 25 so called best hosts, so I figured I should look at the reviews on webhostingstuff.

    http://www.webhostingstuff.com/review/InfinitieNetworks.html

    The complaints on just webhostingstuff.com point to tech support issues.  One complaint states having to give details that were already given before.  Nothing is more aggravating then having to state what was already given, especially if its in a ticket system.   It gets worse when it deals with down time.

    Infinitie networks only has one review that puts them in a good light

    Infinitie is great  (Average)

    – by Marko (hostingtops.com) on 3 September 2008

    This review from Marko who happens to own his own (very cluttered) webhosting review site, said they were great.  Funny thing is there are tons of hostgator  placements but nothing for infinitite.net.  Marko only gave then an average rating, since webhostingstuff is blocking me again and I don’t want to bother anyone to see how many starts this reviewer gave infintite networks I have no idea which category he rated less in.  The whois information for this site indicated there was a dns change to another host atleast in August 2010.  I have no idea if he changed his dns prior to that after his review.

    What state is Infinitie Networks located?

    I have been reading several places where there are claims of being headquartered in Phoenix.

    “Our Support Team is located in house at our Phoenix NOC operations center, so we are in Arizona Standard Time, which as of right now is basically mountain time.“

    http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=1001369&highlight=infinitie.net

    But the problem is their domain whois info gives a Nevada address:

       Infinitie Networks
   3155 East Patrick Lane
   Suite 1
   Las Vegas, Nevada 89120-3481
   United States
    
Then there is this from another webhostingtalk post:
     

http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=1001360&highlight=infinitie.net 
    IP to Ping: 208.89.218.1 (Phoenix, AZ)

    So I ping it and I do a look up by IP

    http://whatismyipaddress.com/ip/208.89.218.1

    http://www.websitefigures.com/site/infinitie.net

    Once again I am brought back to Las Vegas, Nevada not Phoenix Arizona (where I am).  Its not like he could not set up a data center here.  I am not sure why someone would claim to not be from Las Vegas.  Phoenix is in many ways similar in economics, crime, and climate.  Both of which I think are ideal cities in terms having a network center as both are geo-logically stable and extreme weather is rare.

    Going through their site I find a  link to the colocation facitily in Arizona http://infinitie.net/phxcolo-index.php

    But I am brought back to that ip “to ping”.

    Perhaps it was a mistake?   That the ip they meant to use was for their Phoenix location.  Its not like every host out there stays in one city.

    But I am brought back to the design of infinitie networks

    The blog seems to be the only thing with posts for this year, granted its only 3 blog posts.  The forums are far worse.

    http://community.infinitie.net/index.php?showforum=39

    One of the things I hate about having a blog or forum on a company site is that you have to do regular updates.   While a plus in an active blog and or forum gets a site higher search engine rankings, it means someone needs to update it.  If you guessed I was the one that got suckered into maintaining them you guessed correctly.  The rate that I put out posts for this blog would be considered barely adequate.

    Looking at their announcement forum all looked well until the end of September 2008.  While there were frequent updates through 2008 to then, it just suddenly stops.  I am not sure why they stopped.  It has to be better then paying webhostingstuff to show case that even while infinitie networks are in the top 25 they have a 40% approval by customers.

    3 years and counting – hosting-reviews-exposed history in summary

    I am not sure why it slipped my mind but this site hit a 3 year mark last month.  If you just started reading my blog here is a summary of what started my crusade against the fake review sites.

    In October 2007 after a week of being unable to get resolution with webhostingstuff.com and being blocked by them, I had to vent, so I started researching information for an anti-webhostingstuff video.  Webhostingstuff did not take into account that I am not exactly normal and a little bit crazy.  Having made videos with YouTube, I knew how well they worked at bringing in traffic.  For that matter Google gives a lot of search engine prioty to videos on YouTube.  But the further I looked into webhostingstuff.com, it became clear that they were not the only ones that were trading rankings for dollars.  I found that review sites worked in two different forms one of which was like webhostingstuff selling rankings to the highest bidder, and the other which was to rank them by the amount an affiliate pays out.  The false consumer reports sites were trying to make themselves out to be fair and honest.   Never mind most of these hosts don’t even host with the #1 host or any other host in their ranking, they want you to so they can get paid.

    Don’t get me wrong, I am a capitalist among other things.  I like money and I have no problem with affiliates making money promoting a website.  But I also believe in honest ethical practices, I also believe in a reasonable payment %.  Having once owned 4 hosting companies I had affiliate programs on every one of them.  But I was not paying anyone to fake my position in the hosting industry.

    For the first time ever In November 2007 I would get a domain not under my own domain registration site, and not hosted on my own servers  which is this site hosting-reviews-exposed.com and I would launch this video on YouTube. This very video:

    Here is the text from the original home page.

    https://hosting-reviews-exposed.com/hosting-reviews

    After I made the video and site, my venting seemed over.  While I paid for the webhosting on the site and kept the domain active.  I did little more then answer and moderate comments on youtube.  I figured in time that interested in my video would die off, but atleast I got to blow off some steam over how I was treated by webhostingstuff.

    It was probable not until  May 2010 that I would take an interest in this site.  You can thank Google for that, they sent me an email saying I could make money off of hosting-reviews-exposed.com.  The first thing that came to mind was not dollar signs, which is strange for those that know me.  For that matter this is the first site the google has contacted me to get adsense on.  I was rather shocked.  I come to find that despite my neglect this site was gaining traffic.  I am no expert in bringing traffic,  I figured this site would be dead last in site rankings.  For that matter who knew that Google would contact you if your site was doing well?

    So I thought I would look around and see if there was any buzz on search engine about this site.   While searching Google I found one site that show cased my video, in addition did something I should have been doing.  Which is to review the hosts that were using webhostingstuff.

    Even though the host had lost intreast in keeping track of who was on the top 25 I saw that it was worth seeing who was in the top 25 and finding out why they should not be there.   49 hosts later I can say there are very few hosts that did not earn skepticism that appeared on webhostingstuff.  I also ended up adding hosts that decided to spam me, after all why trust a host that can’t get customers by honest means.  But I can’t say thats the last of what I will add to webhostingstuff.

    webhostinglogic.com – Your source for over priced domains

    Webhostinglogic.com is my fifth host review of 8 hosts for October 2010 webhostingstuff.com’s top 25. What strikes me about this site is that its cluttered.  I am not sure the point of putting tons of links and distracting graphics on the main page of a site.  Much of what I see on the main page of webhostinglogic towards the bottom of the screen belongs in on a package page.  The main page of hosting site should not overwhelm, but invite you to explore the site further.  Instead I find information scattered around the main page of webhostinglogic.com.

    Does webhostinglogic offer a free domain or a $20 domain?

    If you read enough of my posts you will know I have a gripe with cheap and bulky resource hosting.  I also have a gripe with free domains with hosting.  Mostly because that was a ploy that hosting companies use to keep customers, now they charge an obsene amount to keep the domain.  Yet I have issues with costly domains.  Paying $20 domains for a domain is like paying McDonald $20 for a cheese burger and fries.  Domains are one of those things that you can afford to go cheaper with, at this time I don’t know of many cheap domain registers expect those that offer free domains with the hosting that I would advise avoiding.  There is not much involved service level wise with a domain.  Once again I can not stress enough that its not a good idea to keep your domain with the same company that you start out hosting with.  Maybe after a few years when you decide you like your host, but even then there is that chance that the host could be bought out by someone that could care less about the management of your service.

    Regardless if your first domain is free with webhostinglogic.com $20 is a lot to pay for extra domains.

    So whats odd about the terms of service for webhostinglogic?

    http://www.webhostinglogic.com/company/usepolicy.html

    I can’t stress it enough, you have to read the terms of service with anyone you sign up  with.  Webhostinglogic is a good reason to read the terms of service.

    Web Hosting Logic accounts cannot be transferred or used by anyone other than the subscriber. Customers may not sell, lease, rent or assign the connection or parts of the connection to any party not named in this Policy. Customer may allow ftp access to its server and host web sites for its customers without violating this Policy. Network bandwidth charges in excess of allocated amount will be assessed from access log reports generated by the HTTPD server.

    So there is an anti reseller clause in the terms of service, that I can understand.  What I can not understand is the anti transfer of ownership clause.  If a customer contacted me and told me that so and so was to take over an account, I did not think twice about the transfer.  Did I say that I like money?  Allowing someone to keep someone else account and not having to register a new account is less fuss.  Its like that argument I have with the utility company when ever I paid them via phone:  They wanted me to confirm who I was, yet I could care less who pays my bill so long as they can not modify my service.  By the same token I don’t care who pays for an account as long they abide by the terms of service.

    If a customer re-registers after Web Hosting Logic’s cancellation of the account without Web Hosting Logic’s written consent, Web Hosting Logic will cancel Customer’s account and all dues and fees paid to date regardless of whether service has been rendered will be forfeited. Additionally, any amounts due will be immediately payable.

    Ok so your not allowed to reregister with them after they canceled your account.  So what makes them think they can bill you for service they will not provide?

    At the time of account cancellation, a Cancellation Code will be provided. If accounts are billed in error after the Cancellation date, credits will only be issued with a valid Web Hosting Logic Cancellation Code. If cancellation is done in writing, it will be the responsibility of the Customer to contact Web Hosting Logic for the Cancellation Code.

    Can you say charge back?  If you canceled your account, they are not authorized to bill your credit card.  Its their responsibility to not do unauthorized charges.

    Use of Web Hosting Logic’s hosting services could involve listing subscriber’s participation in relevant directories, and subscriber expressly grants permission for such listings.

    Does this mean that they can list you as a user for commercial purposes?  That seems like a violation of customer privacy.

    Although all hosting plans contain an exceptional amount of data transfer, each plan is subject to a surcharge in the event usage exceeds the allotted free bandwidth for that plan. Customer is responsible for charges related to bandwidth exceeding the plan’s allotted data transfer.

    So whats the fee for exceeding bandwidth? The last one I have an issue with is number 19, its not something that belongs in the terms of service as the victim of a copy right violation is not going to be subject to the terms of service.  This belongs in a completely different page along the lines of abuse.

    Last thoughts on webhostinglogic

    The question I ask is how did webhostinglogic get into the 18th spot?  After all you look at the number of reviews on webhostingstuff.com you come up with zero.  The webhostinglogic.com was registered in 2001.  Looking at the way back machine its does not appear that they are using an aged domain.  But the most commonly used review sites have nothing for this host.  Despite having a score under 1 million with Alexa I am not sure that webhostinglogic has been doing much in the way of business.

    condorhosting.com – Not a very big host

    Condorhosting.com is my forth host review of 8 hosts for October 2010 webhostingstuff.com’s top 25.  Another small host, granted this is not an issue because they don’t make any claims of hosting x amount of sites.  They clearly tell you they only have 2 servers.  One is for Linux the other is for Windows.   For that matter even though I see no claim of it, they appear to have been in business as early as 2002.  For that matter the only three reviews that give a 5 star rating over 3 years are still with this host.  What can possible be wrong, other then the purchase of so called advertising from webhostingstuff?

    So where is the Condorhosting terms of service?

    Yes once again a host that does not have a link to the terms of service on every page.  I am not sure why there are hosts that do not have a link on every page leading to the terms of service.   Having that link  available on every page But unlike other hosts you can find it on the packages page.

    http://www.condorhosting.com/policy.html

    Ok so I found the Condorhosting terms of service now what?

    The terms of service is suprisingly weak.  But I think the point that draws my attention the most, and another reason why I urge people to do their own back ups regardless of how good the host is:

    Condor Hosting is not responsible for website management or files lost or damaged by users. Website construction and management is the responsibility of the client. Client-maintained backup of all site files is recommended and should be maintained outside of Condor Hosting’s facilities. System backups are intended to be used in the event of system failures and are not intended to be accessed to restore files to individual sites. A fee of $100 may be applicable should a client require any files from our backup systems. We cannot guarantee that the files contained in our backup systems will be the most current copies available for a given site. Tape backups are rotated frequently so retrieval requests should be made within one week of deletion to ensure files are available for restoration.

    Ok they charge $100 for a back up that may not be a current back up.  But they said they use tape drives, which is not what they said on the about page “Data is backed up nightly onto a separate hard drive“.

    Condorhosting seems to have some rather outdated plans ………….. Maybe

    Keep in mind they claim to have 2 servers, they also claim on their about page “State of the art Intel Dual XEON™ 2.6GHz [with Hyperthreading] servers with 2.0GB ECC RAM, 3 x 80GB Serial ATA Hard Drives with Hardware Raid-5, Hardened Secure Kernel and Redundant Power Supplies.”

    I am not sure of the last time I had a server with 2 gigs of memory unless its was a customers dedicated server.

    ‘

    If looks like the space on these packages is in kilobytes and the bandwidth is in megabytes.  But looking at the packages page I think the decimal points was a mistake. Frankly I don’t see enough in service to justify the pricing for low space and low bandwidth at these prices.   Granted the 3 sites that had reviews with condorhosting.com are still with them (atleast I hope they are associated with condorhosting as customers).  But packages have to adapt.

    Condorhosting may not be a bad host, they may have just made a mistake in judgement when they when with  webhostingstuff.

    Cornhuskertech.com – Do they offer 24 / 7 support?

    Cornhuskertech is my third host review of 8 hosts for October 2010 webhostingstuff.com’s top 25.  It feels a bit weird to do a post on a webhost that is a local host that also does computer repair.  Despite the fact that they have webhostingstuff graphic posted on the site.  A site I might add that is in need for improvements.  The design is outdated, and considering the amount of themes out there it does not take much to update a website to a more modern look.  After all how can you trust a host to be up-to-date with current technology if their webdesign is not up-to-date themselves.  After all a site is a representation of the company it represents.

    Why CornhuskerTech?

    http://www.cornhuskertech.com/articles/25-why-cornhusker-tech.html

    Cornhuskertech: First, with Cornhusker Tech you are dealing with a local micro-business in Omaha, Nebraska. Buying hosting from Cornhusker Tech directly supports a local individual who in turn supports the local economy.

    Yet Cornhuskertech has no problem paying a website that belongs to someone in Singapore for “advertising” to promote his site.

    Cornhuskertech: Second, with Cornhusker Tech you are dealing with a local individual who knows who you are. The national hosting providers such as GoDaddy only know you as “number 9876543” when you contact technical support or place an order. With Cornhusker Tech, you are recognized as more than just a number.

    What Cornhuskertech does not tell you is that both ThePlanet (I actually was several different numbers with them) and the host that they are really with do treat you like a number.  But I have to wonder by “individual” does that mean only one person is performing the support?

    Cornhuskertech: Third, with Cornhusker Tech your hosting fees go directly to a local business operation focused on providing quality service to clients. Unlike some of the others, none of the proceeds will be going to trying to outdo the previous year’s almost-too-racy-for-TV ad during the biggest football game of the year.

    Considering part of the customer fees go towards the top 25 positioning on webhostingstuff, its not just supporting the local economy.  Also I have to ask is it better to be with a host that gets people to tattoo themselves as well as get them to change their name to the host name?  No I don’t mean ThePlanet.

    http://www.cornhuskertech.com/articles/25-why-cornhusker-tech.html

    So is Cornhuskertech with ThePlanet?

    Cornhuskertech: Finally, you may be wondering if Cornhusker Tech really has the bandwidth and reliability to host your site. Cornhusker Tech is a sole-proprietorship, but I lease space in one of the country’s premier datacenters (The Planet). Neither Cornhusker Tech nor The Planet practice overselling, or the practice of setting up more accounts than the server has space or bandwidth to accommodate. So you know that whatever disk space and bandwidth you have paid for will be available to you. The Planet is connected to multiple major IP backbone networks, so is not some small operation dependent on one local ISP throughput. Rest assured that despite the small local operation here in eastern Nebraska, your data is safe in a world-class datacenter.

    So is Cornhuskertech with ThePlanet? Yes and no.  This site is not a direct customer of ThePlanet.  Instead they are actually a reseller for HostGator, a direct customer of ThePlanet.   Not the first time I have found a host that was with HostGator (https://hosting-reviews-exposed.com/webhostingstuff-com/webinternethosting.html).  Hostgator has no problem with overselling, for that matter they celbrate it.  http://blog.hostgator.com/2008/10/20/all-you-can-eat-hosting/ Frankly most of the complaints that I have seen from Hostgator seem to be a result of having too many accounts on a server.   Granted I have never used any of ThePlanets shared environments as all the servers I had with them were for my sole use, so I have no idea if they over crowd servers.

    As you can see with the above graphic the  cornhuskertech domain is registered with Hostgator, and the dns is with websitewelcome.com which is the dns that hostgator gives customers.   However I can see that cornhuskertech actually has their own private dns, which I am not sure why they are not using.

    Does Cornhuskertech offer 24 / 7 support?

    That I can not tell,  for that matter I suspect not because of this page which seems the only way to obtain support:

    http://www.cornhuskertech.com/contact.html

    Cornhuskertech: Email is the preferred means of communication. Calls will probably go to voicemail but all legitimate calls will be returned quickly. If you do not reach me by phone, please leave a message so I know who to call and what the call is regarding.

    I can understand why people would not want to be considered a number.  I can also understand ranting against godaddy (even though their Football tv ads are a real form of advertising, and using webhostingstuff is not)  But I also know that when it comes to webhosting the ability to get 24 / 7 “+” 365  support is vital.  No visible customer login area is also something that bothers me. I can not find anything in regards to when you can get support.

    Finale thoughts: Cornhuskertech has a beef with FinallyFast.com

    http://www.cornhuskertech.com/articles/24-finallyfast.html

    So computer repair is part of your bread and butter,   it can’t be comforting when software that fixes registration issues puts out a TV commercials offering a cheap fix.  Perhaps he is correct in that FinallyFast.com manufactured the evidence, but it is a commercial.   What I don’t find is that there was any actually trying to see if the software works. Complaints about his customers that used it only to make it harder to fix the pc’s he gets in.  But between his rants about Godaddies and finallyfast.com commercials I have to believe he has a problem with companies that advertise that he is in competition with.  Granted I have no idea if FinallyFast.com works, I use Uniblue to fix my registry issues.  But there has to be a better way for Cornhuskertech to bring in computer income then to go after a commercial.

    snapblox.com – Party like its 2004, or more like 2007

    Snapblox is my second review of 8 hosts for October 2010 webhostingstuff.com’s top 25.  At first look I have to say that I can admire the design of the main page.  Its simple and clean, unlike the last host I reviewed there was a lot of clutter on the main page.  The design alone is enough to make me think there is nothing to question about this webhost, but there is that simple fact that they appear on 16th spot of webhostingstuff’s top 25 for October 2010.  Then there is zero reviews.  Sort of strange for a website that claims they have been around since 2004.  Search engine results bring me even less, esspecially with alot of the common hosting rating sites.

    So how old is snapblox.com?

    According to their about page http://www.snapblox.com/aboutus:

    “SnapBlox was formed in 2004 to fulfill a market need for reasonably-priced web hosting, design, and backup solutions that also deliver superior customer service and satisfaction.”

    Does the whois info for snapblox.com back that up?

    Clearly the whois information does not back up their claim that snapblox.com has been around since 2004, as the whois information says July 2007.  I am not sure why some hosts claim they are older then what their domain says.  If you read my post on iweb.com https://hosting-reviews-exposed.com/hosting-reviews/iweb-technologies-inc-iwebs-com.html.  You will see while they did not admit that their site was not “a trusted name since 1996”, they removed it off their banner.  Some hosts that existed under other names and other forms of business take the start date form their previous operation for their hosting company, regardless if they were not into hosting before.

    For that matter the earliest results for snapblox from the wayback machine is:

    The earliest results that can be found are for 2008.

    But here is what I find weird, while I have a much higher Alexa score then snapblox, they have far more back links then hosting-reviews-exposed.com.  But from every site I have gone to they appear to have almost no traffic.

    http://www.websitefigures.com/site/snapblox.com

    Perhaps snapblox.com has a problem with being a new guy?

    There is nothing wrong with being new, we all have to start some where.  For that matter the last host I started was back in 2008.  Strangely with all the domains I had, I purchased a aged domain.  Granted it was not because it was a old domain, but because it was a really short easy to remember domain.  Frankly the $1,000 I paid was a steal. The value in the domain was is that it was short and easy to remember.   Granted I can not reveal the name because of the non-disclosure agreement.     I never drew attention to the fact that the domain was over 10 years old, for that matter I left the age of the site out of the information of the site.   My intention was to put the age of the site after it reached the 5 year mark. If people asked, I let them know the start date was 2008.  Yes I was asked if the site would be around next month, but at least there was no one around to draw attention to the fact that I lied about the age of my site in their blog post like I have done with snapblox.

    One finale thought on snapblox.com

    While the below image is fond on the main page…….

    I can not find snapblox on webhostingsearch.

    Cirtexhosting.com – When You Want a One Star Rated Host

    Cirtexhosting is my first review of 8 hosts for October 2010 webhostingstuff.com’s top 25.  With this host I find that I have failed at keeping track of what hosts are new.  As I have listed this as a new host in October and November 2010.  So as I work on a forum for the site I also work on a actual list that will be added to the forum so I don’t repeat this mistake.

    When I first saw this site the first thing that got my attention was the 60% rating, 3 out of 5 stars.  I don’t tend to think in terms of how many stars a site gets, but what percentage of approval a site has of its customers.  Upon further review of those reviews over the last 6 months they have a 1 star rating.  Which is clearly shown on webhostingstuff.com.  For that matter there is not a positive review this year on webhostingstuff.

    www.webhostingstuff.com/review/CirtexHosting.html

    Webhostingstuff  may have Citexhosting in the top 10, but their own reviews don’t justify their ranking

    The complaints I have seen seem at first to be in relation to an outage.  But the further back I go this year the more I see the same complaints.  People are complain about slow response from servers, downtime, and lose of data.  There are complaints in regards to support. The further I research I find indivdual sites and forums that that indicate these problems have been going on for years. For that matter it appears one of their staff respond to this forum in 2008 and even admitted to issues there company had.

    http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=682566

    This is the part where I don’t act as a customer advocate, and divert from the subject of cirtexhosting.   While I can understand the pain of losing a site, regardless of how good a host is the customer must always make certain if a sites data is valuable they do frequent back ups.  I am probable the most frantic of data hoarders you will ever meet.   I have copies of my most valuable data on multiple servers, back up services, usb drives,  network drives, and not to mention the computers that I have.   If this site was down I might at worse lose a days worth of data.

    cirtexhosting – Just because they say nice things does not mean they will stay

    When I went to the home page the first thing I find is this review, I thought I would check out where they were hosted.  Turns  out this customer changed their dns no later then August 7, 2009 to dreamhost.

    More testimonials from Cirtexhosting

    So after finding the first review was no longer hosted by this host I thought I would go to http://www.cirtexhosting.com/testimonials.shtml and decided to see where the rest of the sites were pointing.

    These sites are not pointing to Cirtexhosting:

    Translation: Site – host – my notes

    kirkportas.com – NEARLYFREESPEECH.NET – Not active – dns last updated October 2010
    shinyshack.com – 123-REG.CO.UK – dns last updated August 2009
    dewinddesigns.com – ntt.net – ppc place holder – created Oct 2010? not sure what to make of this * ncsweb.us – HAWKHOST.COM – dns last updated March 2010
    dijitaldunyaforum.info -peer1.net – has a link to Cirtexhosting, dns las updated May 2010
    vantagecrest.com – LUNARPAGES.COM – dns last updated February 2010

    * dewinddesigns.com may be an expired domain that was picked up for the purposes of a pay per click landing site.

    These sites are pointing to Cirtexhosting:

    afriendlyhome.com – CIRTEXHOSTING.COM – However the only thing that is up is a construction page

    sentuken.net – CIRTEXHOSTING.COM – owned by Cirtex Corp

    brentwoodweb.com appears to be the only review / site that is being show case that is actual indepently owned / working website on CIRTEXHOSTING.COM dns.

    You might wonder why I don’t consider afriendlyhome as a valid review. Frankly just having a construction page is a good indicator that they have probable not used the account. The most that I can tell is that they set up an email and a index page. According to the dns records the site’s dns was updated 22-jul-2006. It appears the site has been doing nothing for 4 years.

    Perhaps Cirtexhosting bought sentuken.net on behalf of a client.  It happens, and I have done this for hosting customers.  Often I would take the funds out of my own pocket due to the length time the customer spent with us.  Not something I recommend.  But still even if this was on behalf of the client, it to has a construction page.  Worst yet it promises a launch of September 2009. Both sites may go years before being used.

    I had such a client that had paid for their account for 5 years while it did nothing.  I almost got my head handed to me when I decided to cancel her account.  The customer  did not notice that I deleted her account, but that I had not charged her.  She simply wanted the account ready for when she did get time to work on her site.  The funny thing is the very day she decided to use it, she wanted to upgrade. But still reviews are useless if you do not actively use the account.

    This could become a very long post as I have done a glancing look through most other review sites, forums, and sites that have posted person rants on their own sites.  The bulk of what I post here is from webhostingstuff and cirtexhosting.   There is still a lot more of detail to look at cirtexhosting, perhaps a post for another day.

    Webhostingstuff – September 2010 in review

    Last night I finale finished the list for Webhostingstuff’s new hosts for September 2010.  September is the first time that I find hosting companies that offer free hosting as a gimmick to get people to switch over to paid hosting.   Its also the point where we see Fatcow leave the list.  Soon the iPage and Justhost the last of the Endurance International Group on this list in my October review which I will be working on right after this post.

    Here is the short summary of these 6 websites I found in my September 2010 review.

    Webhostingstuff’s 1 – 10 September 2010

    kvchosting.com

    https://hosting-reviews-exposed.com/webhostingstuff-com/kvchosting.html

    A company that offers free hosting. Which is often used to get people into paid accounts.

    They list one too many sites that are not really awards or are questionable awards. Claims to have been formed 2008, even though domain was created 2009.

    Awardspace.com

    https://hosting-reviews-exposed.com/webhostingstuff-com/awardspace-what-is-so-rewarding.html

    On the plus side, when I confronted them on chat about a hate site, they removed it in seconds.

    On the bad side they were listed on webhostingstuff’s fake top 25.  They offer free hosting often used to get customers in, only to push customers towards buying service.   They pay out 50% commisions which is too high to make sure customers get quality service.  They have an unclear refund policy, that only applies to 1 -5 years.

    Its my opinion that 3 – 5 year terms are too long, given the nature of webhosting space and bandwidth grow cheaper.

    Webhostingstuff’s 11 – 20 September 2010

    vexxhosting.com

    https://hosting-reviews-exposed.com/webhostingstuff-com/vexxhost.html

    In 6 months they average a 60% customer approval on webhostingstuff.com

    Complaints are in regards to slow servers, front page hijacking, and shutdowns without warning.

    At the bottom of a list of many fake awards is their own fake review site fake review site webhostingdt.com

    hostek.com

    https://hosting-reviews-exposed.com/webhostingstuff-com/hostek.html

    Terms of service not accessible from the main page, and can only be found by attempting to order an account.

    Owned by a company called Advanced Online Solutuions(AOS (the company)).

    Burden of proof of down time is on the customer, terms of service protects from almost all forms of down time.

    topgreenhost.com

    https://hosting-reviews-exposed.com/webhostingstuff-com/topgreenhost.html

    A greengeeks.com site.  They claim to be green but have not proof of it.

    Webhostingstuff’s 21 – 25 September 2010

    cyberhostpro.com

    Cyberhostpro – Cyberhostpro.com where is the terms of service?

    Another site that you have to go through the order form to find the terms of service.

    They bill for resource usage by the day (not month),  not a hosting company you want to have when on vacation.

    banahosting.com

    Banahosting – Banahosting.com thinks they can control you

    Other then this crazy assumption that being on their site is a form of accepting the terms of service, there is not much I can find wrong with this site.

    Other the terms of service is on the light side and they appear on whs’s top 25 list.

    i7net.net is on webhostingstuff’s 25th spot

    While I write a summary in November, its worth noting that this site has appeared June, September, October, and November 2010 on this top 25 list.  Problem is not the 72% uptime, its that the site has a cPanel error screen since I looked at the site back in June 2010.

    These 6 hosts are 6 more reasons why you should not trust webhostingstuff as a unbiased source for webhosting reviews.

    w3centric.com – More Michael Low ventures

    I found w3centric when I was looking over my search engine results.  I was not sure why someone would find my site using that term until I did a search of my own on what w3centric was.  It brought me straight to the domain w3centric.com.  It show cased less then a dozen sites all belonging to one Michael Low.  It does not appear that like webhostingstuff.com and hostaz.com, that this site or the others I have not seen before are blocking me.  I come to suspect that webhostingstuff and hostaz are on a single server.  These other ventures are not on that server as I clearly see them. Hostaz and webhostingstuff are clearly show cased on the front page.  But what I find intresting is that two words are not found any where on this site, “unbiased reviews”.  Instead its:

    About W3Centric

    The Company W3Centric Network is a privately owned web development company. We own a number of popular web sites catering to a large web audience.

    Each month we serve millions of unique visitors from around the globe. Over 100 million ad impressions are served through our network of web properties every month.

    W3Centric is profitable, enjoys excellent revenue growth and market reach worldwide. Our web audience and ad clients are primarily from North America and Europe.

    Is this where Michael Low tells the truth, that webhostingstuff and hostaz are nothing more then profit ventures? That the true function is no about ranking, but rankings per pay?  I don’t see any ads on these sites.  Granted webhostingstuff is paid positioning and hostaz is nothing more then an elaborate review site designed to look like a consumer reports for those looking for hosting. So lets see if I can give him a reason to be paranoid and block people every where for no reason at all on these sites.

    w3centric.com – 4printerinkcartridges.com

    This is the first ‘web property’.  First of all on the ink cartridges that are show cased on the main page can be obtain cheaper or near the same cost at Amazon.com.  Keep in mind you only have to spend $25 to get free shipping (unless you have Amazon Prime), where as with this site you need to spend $50 to get free shipping. My own thoughts: The first thing that bothers me is there is not clear contact page.  Only a list of products to buy.   This is a outdated design, most of graphics are not loading.  perhaps thats because they are loading from the whs / hostaz server? But then again perhaps you can bypass Michael Low for the company he is an affilate with http://www.myinks.com

    w3centric.com -4discountcontactlenses.net

    The second ‘web property’.  I am not expert on contact lenses, but like the last site there is not a very clear contact link. So if there is something wrong with your order.  But perhaps it would be best to just avoid this Micahel Low and go straight to the company he is an affilate with 1800contacts.com.

    w3centric.com -hostrated.com

    The third ‘web property’ and the third review site.   I wish that there was enough to go on here to write a review about this hosting review site, but there is not.  Clearly this site is dedicated to any host that has an affilate program.  The first 6 sites belong to Endurance International Group.  All of which have large payouts per sign up.  Clearly there is nothing to indicate why these hosts are in the 1 – 15 spots.

    w3centric.com – 4discountshoes.com

    The 4th site is starting to reveal a pattern in Michael Low’s business practices, because this site is nothing more then an affiliate for shoebuy.com.

    w3centric.com – 4orientalrugs.net

    The 5th site no surprise, an affiliate of rugman.ca.

    w3centric.com – 4homefitnessequipment.com

    The 6th site is an affilate of bigfitness.com.  I have to say this site is the worst design of them all.  No wonders on the main site they have a picture of coming soon.

    W3centric.com – 4gemstonejewelry.com

    The 7th site has no affiliate, because its not even up.

    I don’t see any thing in relation to ad impressions on w3centric or any other site owned by Michael Low

    But this is what I do see:

    The Team The W3Centric team is led by CEO Michael Low. Michael has more than 10 solid years of hands-on experience in e-marketing, site design and e-business management.

    He also posseses academic qualifications in the banking and financial services industry. Combining his unique expertise in e-business and solid financial training, Michael successfully led the W3Centric team in creating one of the largest network of niche web properties.

    I would like to thank whoever it was that found my site by typing in ‘w3centric Michael Low’. In the end the only site of any unique business model is webhostingstuff.com.  None of these sites smacks of any ‘financial’ creditability.Asides for w3centric, all the rest are just cheap attempts at being an affiliate.

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