dbworth — Thu, 01 Jul 1999 17:09:00 +0000

Hi guys!
Sorry it's been so long...I've been flat out. No not with clients for my hosting, just busy. I'll be signing up at iServer when I return from my snowboarding trip. yehaw! Anyway, not many people will probably read this as this forum seems to have died, but I feel I owe it to those who have helped mne so much to at least reply. I'd hate to die without replying...anyway, how'd I get onto that...

Curtis Stevens
Yeah, I'm sure VenerNet only provides the limited features they do for a reason. Possibly they're aiming at a specific market.
And I'm sure their servers are good...at least they'd be clean and fast with not much installed. And I know their support is good...actually, perhaps they keep their features basic so their support staff aren't overwelmed with hard-to-answer questions.
Yes, they would have a lot of experience in hosting, so I guess they _are_ aiming at a specific market of users.
Yeah, multiple domain hosting is catching on...in fact it's almost standard, so they'd be crazy not to offer it.
I guess if they're already doing so well, why change the run of good quality service and so on...altho there's also a saying about doing something for too long, not wising up, becoming old, and losing out. But I guess they've reaslised this, and things would change if they're being bought up by someone else...
Yeah, well, as I've said to other people, you have to chose a host on how it is at the moment. But I wish you the best with VenerNet, and thanks for your best wishes. It's very nobel so to speak to commend another host, despite the fact you host with someone else.

jeffyen
Yes I did say that. Well, they are a reseller, but they don't really buy the space as such, they just resell someone else's plans. And they're a reseller because the vendor or whatever is anonymous, so you wouldn't really call them an agent. Anyway, they resell olm.net I think. Someone else told me this...I think OLM is pretty good, it's just CIHost's bad support staff...

ChanFan
Wow, all that just makes iServer sound even better.
Actually I'm more of a programme than anything like a designer most hosts have both Perl 4 and 5 installed...in different locations of course. Some scripts only require 4.
Yeah, the "install anything" part of iServer is good.
Actually, server A does support subhosting...the only major difference, besides storage space, is you can only have 1 ftp/pop account, but that's enough for me So I'm going for a Server A.

Blur
Thanks for your comments on Communitech. You can see my thoughts on them earlier in this Forum I think.

Well, that's all of them. Thank you once again everyone for your help...where I once recommended Virtualis Systems, I now plan to resell both iServer and Hiway.

David Butterworth
eTRONIX World
http://www.etronixworld.com

Blur — Wed, 23 Jun 1999 02:12:00 +0000

Well, I've got communitech.net, and their great! Their support is excellent, very fast, with knowledgeable staff. Their servers are realiable from what I've seen, and very fast. Overall, I'm very very please with communitech.net

ChanFan — Wed, 23 Jun 1999 02:00:00 +0000

"When you buy a 2nd server tho to resell, is it actually setup? sounds like you've got to install _everything_ on it including perl"

------

No. It's set up by iServer. You can pick and choose what you want installed initially, and Perl is already installed (-- of course, but I think it's version 4.0). You have to specify that you want the most current version of Perl, or install it yourself later from that contributor's directory on the host machine. Don't know why that is when most scripts require Perl 5 or higher to run properly these days, but then I'm not a programmer. Maybe higher versions are still a little too buggy for some people?

As for CGI scripts: if it's uploadable and configurable and chmod-able and all the things a good script is supposed to be, it can be installed and run on your server with no problems -- which is what I meant by "you can buy and install anything you want" in an earlier message.

And, yes, I have Server B. Server A has too many restrictions and does not handle subhosting as well. Also, with Server A, you can only subhost five accounts -- server B: 25 accounts. I decided that having a fully functional server at my disposal with 130 MB more disk space, multiple domain hosting capabilities, and unlimited POP/IMAP & FTP accounts was worth the extra forty bucks a month.

Once again -- Best of Luck!

jeffyen — Tue, 22 Jun 1999 22:22:00 +0000

dbworth, you mentioned that ci host is a reseller. That means they buy space from someone. Do you know how that someone is?

Curtis Stevens — Tue, 22 Jun 1999 03:13:00 +0000

Hi David!

I don't know why Vener do what they do and what their reasons are. I don't know all the technical things about servers and about cron jobs. I do think that they do it for a good reason. I do know they do what is need to make sure their servers are the best they can be.

They started the hosting business in 1995 and I imagine they have learned many things over the years, things me and you don't see. I also understand how you feel and I don't blame you. Multiple domain hosting is something I want and I think they are going to offer that very soon.

I think that when they started back in 95 that most people online were people with lots of money or were not very poor. There were not many hosting companies and the prices were a lot higher than what they are now. I think as time went on the hosting industry become really big and the prices dropped big time. I think Vener had received so many new customers that they owners decided not to lower the prices and use their reputation and their agents to do the selling for them. I think some of the employees like Rod have heard so many things about why don't they do this and do that, and have tried to get the owners to change their service that will be more up to date.

I think that things will be changing real soon and it's about time. I hope it's real soon and you might join me, but I want to wish you the best of luck with any provider you choose. I hope they meet all your expectations and make you very happy.

Good day!

Curtis

----------
Professional Web hosting & Site Design!
Visit us: http://www.1simple.com today!

ChanFan — Tue, 22 Jun 1999 02:29:00 +0000

dbworth: "Just a quick question, when you sign up as a reseller (which I have) it asks to you fax, and later snailmail, a reseller agreement. Would all my resold clients need to do that, or can I just bill them myself, and then iServer bills me?"

That's the beauty of iServer -- they are invisible unless you want them to be otherwise. Your clients need have no contact with iServer at all, and in fact, iServer strongly discourages it -- okay, forbids it. You are responsible for any and all support/customer service that your clients may require.

Current versions of Perl are included in iServer's library of available software; you simply have to Telnet to your server and install it from the (shared) contributors directory of your host server.

Your reseller account should be set up by iServer within 24 hours of receipt of your agreement by fax. And as CWebNetCo has said, everything happens in real time from there. You will find your reseller's backroom very handy, the interface easy to use, the reports concise and helpful.

I wish you every success with your venture and hope you will be as happy with iServer as I have.

dbworth — Mon, 21 Jun 1999 21:34:00 +0000

Hi guys!

Curtis Stevens:
VenerNet is just missing a few things like multiple domain hosting, and it's a bit stupid to wait until they get themselves together. That happened to my ISP, they were slow upgrading their hardware and became slow....but I returned to their excellent priced plans in a years time.
Also, they're a bit 'tight'. Who ever heard of crons having to be approved...and they don't allow access to config files like most of the virtual hosts do (re iserver.com).
I know you really like VenerNet, but in a way it sounds like you need to move on Someone once commented to me about Virtualis (very much like VenerNet) and said "they're only good if you want support...and they're support is only good if you have a lot of questions". But thanks for your help though, maybe in the future I might regret not hosting with VenerNet, but I can only go with what I see before me (and lets not get into a religious debate).

CWebNetCo:
Actually a live support conversation would be good (quicker) but I'm not desperate enough to speed dollars (maybe upwards of $30) to make the overseas call
Thanks for the claffication with the agreements thing. I should have known ebcause iServer said somewhere that they never bill your clients. I'm not even sure why they want so many details...do you think it's necessary for me to do the same? get my clients to sign an agreement I mean?
This reseller backroom sounds very interesting...and I love the way they do those crappy looking, generic pages such as securesites.com so people don't know who you host with and so on...
Sounds like you've got lots of control too.
Hopefully I'll sell 5 servers soon. It will be interesting to see who's inetrested in what prices...you might remember I said I was going to resell a cheaper host as well to fill that market. Not many people I feel, in terms of general public, will pay $55 per month for a server my small business clients will though.
Thanks for your help.

ChanFan:
I guess with iServer being invisible it means you look better (bigger maybe) to your clients.
When you buy a 2nd server tho to resell, is it actually setup? sounds like you've got to install _everything_ on it including perl
Cool, real time. Yeah, I can't wait to the...'The Back Room'.
Thanks for your help and best wishes.

Thanks everyone once again.jus a couple of questions relating to some other stuff that's popped up:

vserver.com - someone recommeneded this to me, and I was wondering if anyone knows anything about this please? I'm not sure if they're as flexible in terms of installations and config files as iServer is, but they look very similar.
Basically the only downside (maybe) I've found about iServer is, is that on Account A you can't have any more pop/ftp accounts. You have to upgrade. But I don't really need more at the moment, so I guess that's ok. The support guy actually recommened their sistor company, hiway too
So what Server's are you guys on? probably Server B I guess...
Thanks again guys, this is the BEST forum I've ever been too.

David Butterworth
eTRONIX World
http://www.etronixworld.com

CWebNetCo — Mon, 21 Jun 1999 03:38:00 +0000

dbworth,

So you don't need live conversation then

Say ... I want a Server B for $99 then you just sign the agreement that they provided to you and this is for your server only then once it's all settled ... You just go to https://order.securesites.com then order a server and iServer will automacilly bill to your account and setup realtime then you bill me $99 or whatever then I pay you then you pay iServer. No other new agreement is need.

If your reseller clients need a server, they can have it in real time ... You can learn in Reseller backroom which allows you to setup a default page, images, cgi scripts .. Notice you see some ISP setup a welcome page etc and that what you can setup for all your resold accounts. Even you can disable or terminate thier accounts and also limit disk spaces or whatever they like and iServer simply bill you and you charge to your clients and you collect funds and send to iServer.

But the more you resell, the more discount you get and more profit you will get.

Hope this answer your question ... if you need more details or help, please feel free contact me and I'll be glad to help you anything you please.

Best of luck ...

----------
Carolina Web Net
www.carolinaweb.net

Curtis Stevens — Mon, 21 Jun 1999 01:30:00 +0000

Hi David!

What kind of features does VenerNet don't have that you want? Have you asked them? They have a lot more than what is on that site. I think the site will change because it sucks. Also they are doing some tests with certain prices and if the owners like what happens then all of their customers and new ones will get it. If it does happen, it should happen this month or next(competitive prices). I love Vener, but the only thing that I hate is they are slow about upgrading on certain things. Rod told me that he is going to become an owner sometime soon and will speed things up a lot. I just hope they hurry up with moving into that NOC and do some changing. If they don't I will be a little disapointed, but all I can do is hope.

I have also found out that they do not have some features for certain reasons. If something will slow down the server or hurt its performance, then they will not have it, they are very strict about that. I was also told that they are working on creating a feature that will be fully loaded with almost anything possible and you can even get a merchant account within 24 hours with the bank they choose. I hope all this happens real soon. Also I was trying to say that it would change 4000 - 5000%, I hope so.

Thanks
Curtis

----------
Professional Web hosting & Site Design!
Visit us: http://www.1simple.com today!

dbworth — Sun, 20 Jun 1999 21:30:00 +0000

Hi.
I eventually got a reply to my email...I think I sent it to the wrong address. It was the support@iserver.com one.

Live conversation would be good, but a bit expensive. I'm in Australia you see

Just a quick question, when you sign up as a reseller (which I have) it asks to you fax, and later snailmail, a reseller agreement. Would all my resold clients need to do that, or can I just bill them myself, and then iServer bills me?
Also, what sort of time-frame does it take for my reseller account to be finalised? that is once I work out the right voerseas dialing code...

Thanks!
David Butterworth
eTRONIX World
http://www.etronixworld.com