Layersevenhosting.com – Brash.im – Your source for SEO?

Layersevenhosting.com is my First host review of 4 hosts for December 2010 webhostingstuff.com’s top 25.  When I first reviewed this host 2 things came to mind because it had zero reviews.  A. it was either a really old host that no one ever noticed or B. it was a fairly new host.   Turns out it was created August 2009.  The design for this site is clunky and in some cases text is hard to read as parts of the graphics make it hard to read the text.  From what I see this is primarily a U.K. host that seems to be focused on the U.K. market.  I am not sure the point of using webhostingstuff.com as this is a site that focuses on the U.S. market.  The point that makes me think that people should avoid this company is because they offer “7 Day moneyback guarantee“.  I can not stress enough that anything less then 30 days is not enough time.   For starters I think my focus is the whole zero reviews thing that sticks out when I look at Layersevenhosting’s 20th spot in the top 25 of webhostingstuff.com.

Layersevenhosting has Zero reviews with Webhostingstuff.com

Webhostingstuff uses the excuse that they use several points of measurement to determine if a host is popular.   But as you can see from this graphic that this host has been assigned a traffic popularity number of 4,889 of 12,786 hosts.   You can also see that this is a host that has zero reviews, so it was not customer feed back that made Layersevenhosting number 20 0ut of 25 hosts.   This is just another host that happens to be in the top because they are the 20th highest payer for “advertising”.

Layersevenhosting.com – Brash Limited connection

I have to admit there was not alot to look at when it came to layersevenhosting.com, honestly it was pretty dull.   But I found a mention of Brash Limited this peaked my interest because I had to wonder who this other company that owned or was behind this host.  Searching I find brash.im, where I find colorful but distracting website.  I get the point of what Brash is when I read part of the rotating graphics “We can improve your online presence – FACT“.

Looking at the Alexa tool in my Google chrome browser I have to laugh as I look at both Layersevenhosting.com and brash.im.  Neither of them have cleared the million mark on Alexa.  Brash.im has a zero Google Page Rank.  Keep in mind my SEO skills are limited to those that help me.  But you would think that these two sites would do far better then I am.

If brash.im was not bad enough improving their own search engine placement.  The very hosting company they promote on the site should serve as an example of their skill in SEO services.  This is the kind of data that tells you to avoid a company that tells you “we can improve your online presence – FACT“, its not a fact because they can’t do it for themselves.

I am a little confused by the Search Engine Data for brash.im.  They have far more back links then I do yet they have a zero Google Page rank and much higher Alexa score.  I can tell you now that my business partner is capable of dropping a site down to around 70,000 Alexa score in three months.

If brash.im and Layersevenhosting can not improve their own search engine standing how will they improve yours?

Webhostingstuff.com – November 2010 top 25 list in review

In November 2010 I found 4 hosts I have not reviewed before on webhostingstuff.com.   The first two hosts I found had me wondering if webhostingstuff was so desperate to get new hosts that they are willing to allow storage sites.  Further review showed that these were indeed hosts but hosting companies.  I suspect that only three of these new hosts are paying for the WHS “advertising”.  Webhostingstuff.com is still blocking me after only a few clicks.

Webhostingstuff.com November 2010 pre-review video

First new host on Webhostingstuff.com’s top 25 list is Hostinglocker.com at number 11

hostinglocker.com – Creation is all that is needed to be a top host

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

Per usual I looked at the whois of the domain for this host.  I have to say I was surprised to find that this host was not even a month old when I took a snap shot of webhostingstuff.com’s top 25.   I am all for giving new hosts a shot.  But it should take awhile for host to get some level of creditability right?  They also had a testimonials which I have to say is a little surprising considering that one of them was Sony.

It seems the way they get around the whole less then a month old is this statement “HostingLocker – established in 2001 as parent company, iNetdog. ”

I have to say that I don’t care for the whole argument that just because they have another company that becomes the start date regardless if its a hosting company or not.  The date a hosting company starts is the day it goes live, and by live I don’t mean the creation of the domain.  iNetdog is almost 10 years old.  Perhaps you might be thinking oh they host Sony’s site on that companies servers.  iNetdog is a Godaddy wildwest reseller, given the speed of support and servers I doubt that Sony would ever use a Godaddy account.

Second new host on Webhostingstuff.com’s top 25 list is Aquarius Storage at number 12

Aquariusstorage.com – Will they share your information with a 3rd party?

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

Another site that seems like it should be a place to store files, and not hosting.  But clearly it is a hosting service.  Unlike the previous host they are actually 2 years old, meaning they have some time under their belt.

But what I found intresting

http://www.aquariusstorage.com/privacy.php

Use of Non-Personally Identifiable Information

We may share aggregate statistical data about our customers with third parties, such as advertisers or suppliers. This aggregate statistical data will not identify you personally.

Also as of last month despite having one 5 star review thats almost 2 years old, their customer seems to have chosen to migrate last month.

Third new host on Webhostingstuff.com’s top 25 list is Siteground at number 13

Siteground.com – Will they surprise bill you?

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

This is perhaps the first time in 2010 that a high level site appear on webhostingstuff.com.  But I have to wonder why.   At this time I suspect the only reason hostgator.com appears in the top 10 is because webhostingstuff.com has an affiliate link set up.  But siteground does not have a huge pay out, and in my opnion has a fair payout.  So I have to wonder why they appear in the top 25.

But there not exactly a innocent company.  One thing I find is complaints about the billing.  With their holiday special over 6 months if you choose all 5 so called “freebies” you will be billed $262.20 with 4 billings over the coarse of 6 months.  After the first year you will be billed $344.20 4 times over the coarse of 6 months after the first year.  The sales operative told me that they send notices to remind you before you are billed.

I also have to wonder if the owner of besthostdirectory.com is owned by siteground since it has whois privacy protection, keeps siteground in the first position, and is hosted with siteground.com

Forth new host on Webhostingstuff.com’s top 25 list is Wooservers at number 19

Wooservers.com – A BurstNET reseller

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

On the surface the only thing that caught my attention was that the whois said that this site was a year old, and for some reason they had 7 positive reviews.   Further review of those reviews had me skepitcal, as none of them pointed to wooservers dns.  But three of them pointed one network that wooservers was on that raises all kinds of red flags.  That would be a company called BurstNET.  I can not stress enough that if something involves BurstNET it should be avoided.  When it comes to BurstNET you can count on outages, equipment failure, and untimely support or lack there of.

And this is the last month that webhostingstuff has i7net in the top 25

Wooservers.com – A BurstNET reseller

Wooservers.com is my forth and last host review of 4 hosts for November 2010 webhostingstuff.com’s top 25.  What I find interesting when I saw this site is its a little over a year old, yet they have 7 reviews with webhostingstuff.

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

Those 7 reviews came over a 5 month period of time (August – December 2010).  I can tell you right now that only 3 of the those 7 reviews are on the same network as Wooservers.  One of the reviews may very will be a fake, as the domain for the review does not exist.  Even though they are only a year old they have a rather impressive Alexa score of 70,193.  Its taken me 3 years to get down to 241,000.  Keep in mind I am no SEO expert, my skills in the hosting industry are primarily customer service, dealing with suppliers, and staffing.

Despite having reviews that leave me skeptical about this company, thats not the biggest concern I have about Wooservers.com.  My problem is I see BurstNET as the  network provider.

The Wooservers.com – BurstNET connection

I had to wonder why I was seeing burstnet network behind 3 of the reviews.  Honestly I had thought all of the reviews may have been fake.  But then I found this:

http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=919430

It appears that Wooservers.com is a reseller for Burstnet.  Normally I would not make it a point that someone is a reseller, unless I thought there were a hosting reseller on a shared hosting account or abusing a system that they are using.   But this is different, this is simply one of the worst companies that I have ever dealt with.  Back in the early part of the last decade they were my third attempt at finding a viable cPanel provider.  Viable is not a word that is fitting for BurstNET.  The first time I was with them it was like pulling teeth to get support.  After three months I had canceled the two servers I had with them after it took them 7 days to restore a server.  I am also not sure if they had caller id or what but most of my calls met with an answering machine, some times it was full.  Despite my objections my business partner decided to try them for a second time 2 years later.  That lasted 2 weeks, as the server we got with them had 2 consecutive defective hard drives.   My business partner got to find out first hand what I had to go through to get someone on the phone and agreed with me that this company needed to be on a permanent ban list.

My own history with BurstNET is a blog post in itself.  I am honestly surprised to see that they are still in business, it boggles the mind how anyone that practices business like they do can stay in business for almost 10 years.  If you doubt that I know what I am talking about I suggest going to any search engine and enter “burstnet sucks” or any other combination of a negative word with Burstnet because you will find tons of reasons why you should avoid anything that involves Burstnet.

Despite being at least 5 years since I have been with BurstNET it does not appear that they have changed at all.  For that matter the site seems to look like it did when I first signed up.  I don’t know the full details of the relationship between BurstNET and Wooservers.com.  It safe to say that if Wooservers.com is reselling any BurstNET service your not going to get timely support.

But there were those Wooservers.com reviews…….

Despite having burstnet on 3 of the 7 reviews, there are 4 reviews that also leave me skepitacal of this company.

axiohost.com – appears to have moved 03-dec-2010
thevixe.com  – appears to have never been on Bustnet
nastyhobgoblins.com – no one owns that domain
actionptc.com –  appears to have never been on Bustnet

Due to the relationship WooServers has with BurstNET I have to recommend avoiding them like the plague.

Siteground.com – Will they surprise bill you?

Siteground.com is my third host review of 4 hosts for November 2010 webhostingstuff.com’s top 25.  To be honest on the surface there is not a lot that I can tell you. This has been a bit of a stumbling block and the reason I have not posted in a while, as this was a host that was not going to take my usual 2 hours of research.   It may very well be a site that deserves to be in a top list.  But I have to ask why are they on webhostingstuff.com?   I could go on about their affiliate program, but it seems a fair program.  The design seems bulky.  Not to mention I really hate the little pop up window the terms of service are in.

So what is wrong with Siteground.com?

Even though siteground.com links to a site that has no negative reviews about them, they are out there.

http://www.besthostsdirectory.com/siteground-reviews.htm

One complaint I see is in regards to reoccurring billing.  In the hosting industry this is not exactly uncommon.  But the problem I find is where they are billing 15 days in advance of the due date.  Then there is their latest special where they offer 5 free gifts.  The problem is they are only free for a certain amount of time, and not all of them are for a year.  Its unclear that after the free period is up that you may get billed for those services, and if so what terms will you be billed for Monthly, Quarterly, Semi-Annual, or longer?

http://www.web-hosting-top.com/web-hosting/web-hosting-top.siteground.com/type/add-review

For that matter you can find alot of anti-Siteground sites under a search of Siteground sucks.

Siteground.com / Besthostdirectory.com connection?

It should be no surprise that I look at the whois for any domain some how linked to a domain I am reviewing.

Here is what I get when I do a whois on besthostdirectory.com

Registrant:
 Contactprivacy.com
 96 Mowat Ave
 Toronto, ON M6K 3M1
 CA

 Domain name: BESTHOSTSDIRECTORY.COM

No surprise there.  I tend to think that if your a company that you should not get domain privacy and that should be for indivduals only.  You might say on one hand that this is good they have Siteground.com on the number 1 spot, and if you look at there network info they are indeed hosted with Siteground.com.

So what about their previous history?  When I look at the wayback machine guess which host is number 1 every time:

http://web.archive.org/web/*/besthostsdirectory.com

Siteground is number 1 and LunarPages is number 2 in every snap shot.

Ever hear of the company called featuredpricehosting?   This was a hosting company that ran there own top 10, they ended up getting busted over this.  Granted I don’t know the full story but its on my to do list.  But I suspect that Siteground.com is the owner of besthostdirectory.com.   Even if they do not own it, it oddly has no negative reviews about siteground.com.

What about the free Siteground.com stuff I told you about earlier?

Being its now January 7th I find it odd that there still using Santa, but then again when I ran 4 hosting companies I had a New Years graphic up.

Now what is not clear is when you will be billed and how much for.

Standard SSL Certificate

This is the only thing that I can say with some certainty that this will be billed under no less then annual terms.  However I can tell you that you can get SSL certficates for as low as $20.   I can only assume it costs them $10, which is why they offer it for free the first year.  Just as I can believe that it only costs them $5 for a domain.  So if you do choose to go with Siteground.com for a ssl use it for the first year, but go else where to get a cheaper one after you exhausted your free time.

Spam and Email Virus Protection

At $5.50 a month that is $33.00 for 6 months, despite having 6 free months that only costs $24.

Website Wizard

If it was billed monthly it would be $3.50

Premium Support

There is no clear mention of how much more time you would have to wait if you did not pay $5.95 a month for priority support.

Daily Backup

I don’t what the maximum is of back up, this after all is a unlimited package.

Trying to go back to the main page of Siteground.com I get this popup window:

I figure the best thing to do to get my questions answered is to get on  their chat support to find out what they bill for.

The SiteGround.com chat session

Martin: Hello Benjamin
Martin: Welcome to SiteGround.com Hosting Services!
Benjamin: Hello Martin,
Benjamin: I am interested in your current offering
Benjamin: I see that the “gifts” are only free for a certain time and I would like to know if they are subject to auto billing?
Martin: Glad to hear about your interest, allow me a quick moment please
Benjamin: sure
Martin: I will now transfer you to a specialist in the field of current promotion and he will be happy to help you further
Benjamin: Thank you

This chat session has been transfered to Levan [sales]

Levan: Hello Benjamin
Benjamin: Hello Levan
Levan: The “gifts” are indeed for a certain pre defined period.
Levan: Sort of a trial for the extra services
Levan: And yes, as any other service we offer they would also be renewed automatically, if of course you do not choose to cancel them first.
Levan: Of course you will get quite a lot of notification before that, to make sure you remember.
Benjamin: Can you tell me when they would be rebill and for how much and under what terms (i.e. monthly, quarterly, semi-annual…….)
Benjamin: I suspect the ssl is once a year
Levan: which one would be interested in, or all of them?
Benjamin: all of them
Levan: Fair enough.
Levan: The SSL is indeed on a yearly basis
Levan: $82 per year.
Levan: Premium Support is $71.40/yr
Levan: Daily Backups are $71.40/yr
Levan: Spam Killer is $42/yr
Levan: Website wizard $42.00/year
Benjamin: This is not pro-rated to match the account?
Levan: If you could elaborate, please.
Benjamin: Example I buy today
Benjamin: 2 months from now you bill me for the back up
Benjamin: but only at 10 months
Benjamin: so that I am billed the same time as my hosting package
Levan: No the services would be rewed at different times, when the trial for the specific service has lapsed.
Benjamin: ok
Benjamin: do you offer a 30 day guarantee?
Levan: Yes, indeed a 30 day refund policy does come with the package.
Benjamin: In regards to the free domain, is that for the life of the account?
Levan: Yes, as long as you are hosted with us
Levan: the domain name will remain free
Benjamin: ok
Benjamin: how much would it cost to retain the domain if I decide not to keep my hosting account?
Levan: the standard domain registration fee with us is $14.95
Benjamin: cool
Benjamin: ok one last question
Levan: So that would be the it , yup
Levan: As many as you need.
Benjamin: its in regards to the premium support
Levan: ok
Benjamin: what is the difference in the premium and non-premium support
Levan: There are 2 main differences, one would be the average response time
Levan: Standard is around 15
Levan: Premium lowers it to 5 min
Levan: the second one is the ease with which you can post general issues.
Levan: Let me elaborate.
Levan: Basically the normal ticketing system is divided into categories.
Levan: So you need to navigate to the category at hand, and post the issue there, and it goes to the specialist in the field.
Levan: Example
Levan: Domain problems
Levan: Into the domain/DNS category
Levan: With premium you get a direct drop down meny
Levan: With a quick option post the matter immediately.
Levan: So it makes it a little harded for us
Levan: But easier for you.
Levan: That’s about it.
Levan: Of course with the trial
Levan: You get to experience that first hand.
Levan: Given that you do not have many requests
Levan: As mostly service runs smoothly.
Levan: No actual need for premium to be honest.
Benjamin: too many requests?
Levan: Simply for more dynamic users, in need of constant info
Levan: It’s better to go for premium
Levan: kind of beginner vs experienced user
Benjamin: Ok I think that will do it for me I will chew on this for the next hour and then decide if I will sign up. Thanks for the info.
Levan: Most welcome, glad I could assist you.
Benjamin: Have a good day
Levan: And if you need anything else , just come by. We are here at all times.
Levan: Thank you, have a great one as well!

In sum what this siteground.com chat boils down to:

Over 6 months if you choose all 5 so called “freebies” you will be billed $262.20 with 4 billings over the coarse of 6 months.  After the first year you will be billed $344.20 4 times over the coarse of 6 months.  The sales operative told me that they send notices to remind you before you are billed

Also the support service seems a bit wonk, after all why should someone that does not pay for premium service not get this pull down menu support?

Either way if you choose Siteground you better be prepared to watch your email for what may be a surprise bill.

Webhostingstuff.com – December 2010 top 25 list

I find 4 more hosts on Webhostingstuff.com that I have never reviewed before.   Hostgator stays at number 2, and Siteground is here for another month.  But I7net is missing, well more like deleted from the directory.  It seems almost like an attempt to sweep this mistake under the rug and hope that many people did not notice this mistake.  It may very well be over looked.  Its not like I have huge amounts of traffic coming in, and truth be told I may be the only one that finds I7net fascinating.  Traffic is not that great on this site, for the matter one of the worst topics for bringing people in is I7net.  I can not help but say that I7net was the dead canary no one bothered to look at while browsing for a host on webhostingstuff.com.

Here is the video summary for this month:

Also see if WHS uses any of these 25 hosts – hint: they don’t.

Webhostingstuff top 1 – 10 most popular hosting companies

Nothing new here, but…..

I don’t think Hostgator is purchasing “advertising” from Webhostingstuff.com

This has been a thought in the back of my head for some time now.  Why would a host like Hostgator bothered to buy, especially when all the other big names hosts have jumped ship.  I think the simple answer to that is that a simple commission of $125 per sign up is enough reason to keep a host on with people that pay for this unseen advertising.    Plus while the negative reviews are slim for hostgator, the new reviews are not coming as fast as they are for other review sites.

Webhostingstuff top 11 – 20 most popular hosting companies

Site ground is still in the “top 25 list.  While I am still working on my November 2010 list,  this is the host that holds me up from finishing it.

After that there is Layer Seven Hosting.  I find it interesting that there is no reviews for this site.  Compared to many this is a hosting company that does not offer a huge amount of resources.

Webhostingstuff top 21 – 25 most popular hosting companies

Three sites find themselves in the 21 – 25th spots of webhostingstuff.com’s list.

Infuse Web which has had only 1 review and that was in January 2008.

Phastnet which has had only 1 review and that was in September 2008.

The last host is Avahost with a 60% approval rating (3 out of 5 stars), which means they are barely passing.  I will defiantly be going through the reviews for this host when I do my own review.

and then

And then Webhostingstuff.com deleted I7net

Aquariusstorage.com – Will they share your information with a 3rd party?

Aquariusstorage.com is my second host review of 4 hosts for November 2010 webhostingstuff.com’s top 25. When I saw this site and hostinglocker.com, I had to wonder if these were webhosts or data storage sites.  Its safe to say despite their names they are indeed webhosts.  This is a site that while only 2 years old, I can say has accomplished more in traffic rank then most hosts I have seen do in 2 years.  After all their Alexa ranking is around 500,000.  Most that I have seen that are 2 years old are in the  millions.  I can say the design impresses me, though I guess it gets the job done.

For that matter there is not a lot to dig up on this host.  Yes Aquariusstorage.com offers unlimited plans.  Of coarse that is something I against as no host can truly offer you unlimited, and there fore are overselling.    I suspose I could complain about them having a post office box, which is where they want you to  send your DMCA complaints.  Frankly I would prefer to send them via email.  Not to mention if I had to mail it I would probable use FedEx, for which you can’t send to po boxes.

Then there is this part:

http://www.aquariusstorage.com/privacy.php

Use of Non-Personally Identifiable Information

We may share aggregate statistical data about our customers with third parties, such as advertisers or suppliers. This aggregate statistical data will not identify you personally.

I have never been comfortable sharing my customers information even if it does not identify them personally.  As long as my customers did nothing illegal I would not provide their information to anyone.

So when was Aquariusstorage.com formed?

According to the whois, its creation was on November 29, 2008.

What about Aquariusstorage.com’s review?

I am not sure how a site that has not had a review in almost 2 years gets a top spot in the t

The intresting thing is as I review this November Top 25 site, my timing seems perfect.  It appears that Quantawebdesign.com changed their dns today.

 Updated Date: 20-dec-2010

While Aquarusstorage is with Softlayer, Quantawebdesign.com is now with PWEBTECH.COM.

I can’t really say why they left.  After all this is the only review I can find.  I have to say I am a bit suprised to not find more

I was about to go to the terms of service  for Aquariusstorage when I found this:

John Smith who is not the owner of randomdomain.com is not hosting with AquaruisStorage.  I tend to wonder if this was a design error.  Clicking on the link in the testimonial takes you to the same page you are on, and not to where you would expect to be taken to more testimonials.  After all this is something that the designers did with my companies, they used generic names and such when drawing up the site.  However that was for heads of the company to see.  So while I got to see names of people on the initial draw up, customers and would be customers would not.

Personally I do not think Aquariusstorage should put up testimonials until they get some from current customers that are still with them.

hostinglocker.com – Creation is all that is needed to be a top host

Hostinglocker.com is my first host review of 4 hosts for November 2010 webhostingstuff.com’s top 25.  At first look I saw there was no reviews for this site.  Unlike usual when I was doing the initial write up for the hosts to be reviewed for November I decided to look at whois information.  I was a little surprised to see that a host that ranked number 11 out of 25 hosts was actually created the very month it won (sorry I mean acquired “advertising” from webhostingstuff).  Then again i7net has not been online and they are in the 21 spot, so I suppose this host is a step up from i7net.  The design is not bad compared to many of the companies I have reviewed, it may be a bit on the clunky side.  But its not overwhelming with detail.

Then there are the hosting plans, three total.  But no mention of unlimited space.  With that I can say I am not focusing on the plans at this time.  I think the true focus is when this company was formed.

So when was Hostinglocker.com formed?

This might be a bit of a confusing statement:

HostingLocker – established in 2001 as parent company, iNetdog. HostingLocker’s plans are simple – every hosting package contains all of the great features available. The only differences between hosting plans are the disk space and bandwidth allocations. HostingLocker does not oversell either disk space or bandwidth, so your site is protected and guaranteed the best performance possible.

http://www.comparewebhosts.com/GuaranteedHost.htm?C=6077

Now to be clear this is when the domain was created October 22, 2010:

The parent company appears to be inetdog.com which was formed August 26, 2001:

Combined with the whois information and a look at inetdog, I can tell you that inetdog is a reseller for Godaddy’s Wild West Domains.  After all you clearly see:

Registrar: WILD WEST DOMAINS, INC.

In both domains whois.  Then you can go to inetdog and see a Wild West Domains template.  A template that obviously not been modified since they first signed up with this Godaddy reseller program.

While inetdog.com is a Godaddy reseller, hostinglocker is a customer of CLOUDFLARE.COM.  Which is  new company to me, though I have to wonder if cloudflare.com allows reselling.

I find this part of cloudflare’s terms of service intresting:

SECTION 9: RECORDS OF YOUR VISITORS

As part of the CloudFlare Service, you may choose to monitor the traffic to certain websites. In doing so, you acknowledge that CloudFlare acts as your limited agent (and data processor in the EU context) to you for the purpose of providing Internet data and optimization services. You acknowledge that it is your responsibility to ensure that the use of CloudFlare’s Service is permitted under the laws of your jurisdiction and you agree to indemnify and hold CloudFlare harmless if your use of the Service is in violation of local law. Where required by law, you agree to post a privacy policy on any that, at a minimum, discloses any and all uses of personal information that you collect from users including any information collected via the Service. You agree to indemnify and defend CloudFlare from and against any and all claims stemming from your failure to comply with this provision and/or your failure or refusal to abide by the terms and provisions of any applicable privacy policies.

http://www.cloudflare.com/terms.html

I can’t seem to find a privacy policy on hostinglocker.com.

So its been 2 months and Hostinglocker.com has testimonials

I am not familar with Martin-Group or The RedStone Group, but I doubt that Sony America is hosted with them.

Then there is this statement from Hostinglocker.com

http://hostinglocker.com/faq.shtml

Why don’t you offer unlimited disk space or bandwidth?

Actually it is not possible for any hosting company to offer unlimited disk space or bandwidth. This is typically an advertising gimmick that is cleared up when you read their Terms of Service. All of them will have a clause where they can terminate your account for excessive disk or bandwidth usage, usually without defining those terms. HostingLocker actually reserves the bandwidth and disk space you pay for to keep your site performing well and insulated from other users who may be abusing server assets.

Which is true, but I tend to wonder how anyone can trust hostinglocker when they use webhostingstuff for “advertising” and have testimonials that are questionable.

webhostingstuff- October 2010 top 25 list in review

October 2010 left me with 8 hosts to review from webhostingstuff that were never reviewed before by me.  Granted I am scrambling with what free time I have to get the all the new hosts with 2010 wrapped up before the end of the year.  7 of these sites I am certain are small companies.  But there might be 8,  despite having 4 reviews on webhostingstuff, they have a vast amount of reviews on sites that don’t take include websites that were hosted by the site being reviewed.

Despite being pressed for time, I decided to increase my own work load by doing videos about the reviews.   So much for free time in between my work for new income sources.

Webhostingstuff top 1 – 10 most popular hosting companies

The only new introduction on the top 25 in the 1 – 10 spot is a host called Cirtexhosting which is in the 5th spot.

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

At first glance they had a 3 star review, but further review showed they only had a 1 star average rating for the last 6 months.   Though as I compose this the rating is now up to 2 stars.

There was a lot of testimonials on Ciretexhosting’s site, but most of those reviews had migrated.  All but three sites remain.  1 was under the Cirtexhhosting’s ownership, 1 only had a landing page, and just one site is active.

Webhostingstuff top 11 – 20 most popular hosting companies

Three new hosts in the 11 – 20 spots Snapblox, condorhosting.com, and Web Host Logic Inc (not highlighted).

At number 16, we have snapblox

If you noticed I highlighted that they have no reviews. https://hosting-reviews-exposed.com/webhostingstuff-com/snapblox.html On top of that this a company claiming to be 6 years old, too bad the whois does not back that up.

At number 17 we have Condorhosting.com

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

Despite the fact they have a full five star rating (from just three reviews), they have not received a review since July 2008.  You would think they would of had some positive feed back in at least September to earn that October 2010 slot.  This is a bit of a strange host, they don’t try to hide the fact that they are a small company.  They clearly tell you they have only 2 servers. Plus their plans seem to be stuck in the past.

Not to mention the graphics need work.

At number 18 we have Web Host Logic Inc

https://hosting-reviews-exposed.com/webhostingstuff-com/webhostinglogic.html Just another site that proves you don’t need customer feed back to be on webhostingstuff.com’s top 25/ Despite some odd ball point in the terms of service that says you can’t transfer ownership of an account to someone else (keeping a customer is just not that vital). They give fee domains with accounts, but charge $20 for addtional domains.

Webhostingstuff top 21 – 25 most popular hosting companies

4 new companies in the top 21 – 25 spot.  Infinite Networks, GigaPros, YASPE. and Cornhusker Tech.

At number 22 we have Infinite Network

https://hosting-reviews-exposed.com/webhostingstuff-com/infinitie-net.html

Clearly the problem with this host is despite having a two star rating, webhostingstuff felt that it was fitting to put this host in a top 25 just because they paid for “advertising”. Because it was on the list, and has 2 stars I figure the best place to look for problems is on the very customer reviews that people put on whs.   The problems are technical in nature.

At number 23 we have GigaPros

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

Here is the strange thing about this host,  on Webhostingstuff they only have 4 reviews.  Yet on their own ratepoint ( a company that I find fishy) account has 149 reviews, no negative reviews.  Even though webhostingstuff has one negative review.  Web-hosting-top.com has a ton of reviews as well, including a few negative.  I suspect its because whs keeps track of domains associated with customers that complain or praise a host.  Never mind there are still people that fake their reviews on webhostingstuff with domains. On top of that they want people to beleive despite offering an unlimited package that they do no oversell. Honesty is the key to any successful business. We do not hide any tricky limitations in our Terms and Conditions page. Instead, we show you the exact resources that you are buying from us. And that’s the base of our Zero Overselling Policy. You fully get what you pay for! No excuses, no gimmicks, no lies This site has alot in common with site5.

https://hosting-reviews-exposed.com/webhostingstuff-com/site5-sucks.html

At number 24 we have YASPE

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

They claim to have 20,000 clients.  But they only have one review with webhostingstuff despite 10 years of service, their parent comapany LIQUIDNETLTD.NET (who is actually younger then them) has no reviews despite having 25,000 customers.  I can not find reviews for either on other review sites.

At number 25 we have Cornhusker Tech

https://hosting-reviews-exposed.com/webhostingstuff-com/condorhosting.html This would be the first host to actually agree with me after a post.  So I don’t feel there is a point in beating a dead horse.  I have actually offered a re-review in 6 months.  I am hoping that he will use some other company then hostgator for reselling.

Webhostingstuff had i7net at 21 in October 2010

As I write this, I can tell you now that the i7net entry has been deleted.  After doing a snap shot of Decemember 2010, I found no mention of this host.  I wanted to look up some info on i7net, and its gone.  For that matter they seemed to have trimmed down the number of hosts 12,789 to 12,007 in a 24 hour period of time.  Perhaps its a hick up, but once again I am being blocked for doing 12 inquires. For full details as to why I find this odd you can go to https://hosting-reviews-exposed.com/webhostingstuff-com/i7net.html for full details on a webhost thats not been online most of this year.

It really does appear that its going down hill for webhostingstuff

Currently there is only one webhost of any ranking on webhostingstuff (hostgator), all the rest are just host trying to hang on or just a fly by night operation.

Yaspe.com – Do they have 20,000 customers?

Yaspe.com is my Last  host review of 8 hosts for October 2010 webhostingstuff.com’s top 25.  On the surface they are 10 years old, yet they only have 1 review with webhostingstuff.  Other then that I can find no other reviews.  Perhaps that might be because they are from Spain, and appear to from the Way Back  Machine to have been a Spanish site.  What little I know of the Spanish Language is not enough to help me in looking up results in Spanish.   But here is the thing that strikes me, they claim to have 20,000 customers.  Yet their Alexa rank is 1,812,782.  Even with 300 customers on the last host I created the score was below seven hundred thousand.   Thats also considering even though the domain was 13 years old, it was only being actively used for less then 1 year.    I have several domains that are 10 years or older then have ten million or higher on their Alexa rating because they have been doing nothing.

You would think that Spain would show up in the Traffic Rank, especially when they have 20,000 customers.  But I suspect they are counting sites not customers.

Despite my lack of search engine optimaztion skills, I have gotten hosting-reviews-exposed.com to around 250,000 on Alexa.  Keep in mind before I had a blog my score was above three million.  That only took me 6 months.

What about the video on YASPE’s home page?

Its strange there is only one website on the video, and its not yaspe, but lightvocalgroup.com.

YASPE’s website is located in the United Kingdom, however the lightvocalgroup.com is located in Bulgaria.

I suspect that YASPE is not the only host using this video, and going through the domain whois and the terms of service my suspicion is proven correct.

It appears they belong to a network that belongs to:

LiquidNet Ltd.
OrgId: LIQUI-20
Address: 1040 SE 7th Court, Apt 307
City: Dania Beach
StateProv: FL
PostalCode: 33004
Country: US

Then there is this from their terms of service

http://www.yaspe.com/?lang=en&action=terms

The Service that is subject to the following agreement is provided by YASPE in association with LiquidNet Ltd., a company registered in the United Kingdom, registration No. 4654498. YASPE and LiquidNet Ltd. will be referred to as YASPE for the sake of brevity in this document.

Off to the whois once again.

Queried whois.internic.net with “dom liquidnetltd.net”…

   Domain Name: LIQUIDNETLTD.NET
   Registrar: GODADDY.COM, INC.
   Whois Server: whois.godaddy.com
   Referral URL: http://registrar.godaddy.com
   Name Server: DNS1.SUPREMECENTER.COM
   Name Server: DNS2.SUPREMECENTER.COM
   Status: clientDeleteProhibited
   Status: clientRenewProhibited
   Status: clientTransferProhibited
   Status: clientUpdateProhibited
   Updated Date: 06-jul-2010
   Creation Date: 19-aug-2006
   Expiration Date: 19-aug-2011

And what does webhostingstuff have to say about liquidnetltd.net

With its more than 22 500 customers, fast and reliable client support team, necessary know-how and superb technical equipment, the LiquidNet Ltd brand is fast becoming a household name in today’s hosting industry.

Interestingly LIQUIDNETLTD.NET claims to have 2500 more customers then YASPE,  yet has a lower traffic popularity then it:

Site Established: Unknown

Traffic Popularity: #8,860 of 12,007 companies

When I did my snap shot YASPE was 3,955 out of 12,789 hosts.

Its appears that webhostingstuff is clearing house, more on that in a later post (one where I say good bye to i7net).

Its also my opinion that this may be a reseller on a program similar to Wild West Domains (the Godaddy reseller program).   Though there is not enough there to confirm that its a reseller.

YASPE the host that makes you read

Going through yaspe, I find a lot of quirky English.  Granted I don’t really like pointing out a host for having bad grammar.  As I am not exactly perfect in my own English, especially before I have my morning coffee.

TECHNICAL SUPPORT FOR EXISTING CUSTOMERS

To open a trouble ticket and receive a solution to your problem from our technical support in less than an hour, you have to read the instructions in the YASPE Ticketing System.

I am willing to bet that yaspe is not the only company thats a part of LIQUIDNETLTD, if they have 22,500 – 20,000 customers.

But with no brainer lines like “Having a website of your own would be unthinkable without a web hosting account at hand.“, you have to wonder why anyone that reads would buy from yaspe.

1...141516...25Page 15 of 25
© Hosting Reviews Exposed