Discussion
Hi all (Jamie) 
I've been comparing a few different hosting companies and have so far got these three in my short list:
www.heartinternet.co.uk/business-h.shtml
www.streamlinenet.co.uk/wh.php
and of course
https://www.register1.net/vds.php
Just wondering if anyone here has had any experience of Heart or Streamline.
They give you unlimited web space and bandwidth over register1 but don't want to compromise on service.
Thanks for any help
I've been comparing a few different hosting companies and have so far got these three in my short list:
www.heartinternet.co.uk/business-h.shtml
www.streamlinenet.co.uk/wh.php
and of course
https://www.register1.net/vds.php
Just wondering if anyone here has had any experience of Heart or Streamline.
They give you unlimited web space and bandwidth over register1 but don't want to compromise on service.
Thanks for any help
Plotloss said:
Do you run an exceptionally busy website or host huge files?
Storage and bandwidth shouldnt be a consideration really in 99% of cases.
Storage and bandwidth shouldnt be a consideration really in 99% of cases.
Not at the mo but fingers crossed it will be in the future. I wasn't looking for an unlimited account just that there wasn't a huge difference in cost between register1 and the other two.
Doesn't matter now as I'm currently tapping the card details to register1. While we are getting going I just want to make sure the company I use isn't going to give me any extra stress.
Thanks
To be honest if a web host was saying "We'll give you infinite drive space" or "DB size? No problem." I'd personally start looking more closely at the fine print of what exactly you're paying for.... smells like IDE & no RAID... which is cheap and usually ok, but if *fingers crossed* you start seriously pounding the machine then you're going to suffer as the drive(s) won't keep up.
To be honest as a intermediate stage to give you room for expansion make sure you're getting SATA on the server, perferably in some form of RAID configuration (pref RAID5... but expect to pay through the nose for that), not as zoom as the high end SCSI units but good enough for web hosting a busyish site (unless you're hosting Argos in which case sod it and get the SCSI off the bat
).
To be honest as a intermediate stage to give you room for expansion make sure you're getting SATA on the server, perferably in some form of RAID configuration (pref RAID5... but expect to pay through the nose for that), not as zoom as the high end SCSI units but good enough for web hosting a busyish site (unless you're hosting Argos in which case sod it and get the SCSI off the bat
). ThePassenger said:
To be honest if a web host was saying "We'll give you infinite drive space" or "DB size? No problem." I'd personally start looking more closely at the fine print of what exactly you're paying for.... smells like IDE & no RAID... which is cheap and usually ok, but if *fingers crossed* you start seriously pounding the machine then you're going to suffer as the drive(s) won't keep up.
To be honest as a intermediate stage to give you room for expansion make sure you're getting SATA on the server, perferably in some form of RAID configuration (pref RAID5... but expect to pay through the nose for that), not as zoom as the high end SCSI units but good enough for web hosting a busyish site (unless you're hosting Argos in which case sod it and get the SCSI off the bat ).
To be honest as a intermediate stage to give you room for expansion make sure you're getting SATA on the server, perferably in some form of RAID configuration (pref RAID5... but expect to pay through the nose for that), not as zoom as the high end SCSI units but good enough for web hosting a busyish site (unless you're hosting Argos in which case sod it and get the SCSI off the bat
). May I add a recommendation for SAS (Serial Attached SCSI - I love acronyms within acronyms
) - we've recently specced a twin dual-core CPU server with 3 x 15,000rpm SAS HDDs and 4GB of RAM and the thing flys. I ran a fully disk image backup to an EHDD after installing SBS 2003 with Exchange, SQL Server and SQL Reporting Services) and it took, including compression, encryption and a post-back validation, 6 minutes! 
Edited by roadsweeper on Monday 26th February 17:26
Thanks for the info people
I'm now with Register1, I'll ask what setup they have?
My favourite acronym was for scanners, I used to sell them and tell customers about how they were TWAIN compatible. For a long time I had know idea what it stood for until one of my colleagues did some research and told us what he found out. I don't know for sure if it is correct but it made me laugh.
TWAIN: Technical Without An Interesting Name
I'm now with Register1, I'll ask what setup they have?
My favourite acronym was for scanners, I used to sell them and tell customers about how they were TWAIN compatible. For a long time I had know idea what it stood for until one of my colleagues did some research and told us what he found out. I don't know for sure if it is correct but it made me laugh.
TWAIN: Technical Without An Interesting Name
We only use SCSI RAID (SAS is still SCSI!) on our servers.
The most resent Register1 server has 6 drives (the more spindles the better for I/O throughput) in RAID10 setup along with 8Gb of ECC buffered RAM (expandable to 32gb as the need requires) to ensure that any hardware memory errors are caught and dealt with before the OS level.
iirc It also has 16 Logical Processors (Dual Quad Core) to ensure great CPU performance.
As has been said, those offering 'unlimited' deals will typically be adding 1Tb sata hdds without raid.. these drives are not designed for everyday server use, and will invariably fail, taking your data with it!
Welcome aboard
J
JamieBeeston said:
We only use SCSI RAID (SAS is still SCSI!) on our servers.
The most resent Register1 server has 6 drives (the more spindles the better for I/O throughput) in RAID10 setup along with 8Gb of ECC buffered RAM (expandable to 32gb as the need requires) to ensure that any hardware memory errors are caught and dealt with before the OS level.
iirc It also has 16 Logical Processors (Dual Quad Core) to ensure great CPU performance.
Ahhh, it's a cute little un
4U chassis or has someone managed to shoe horn it in to a 1U chassis with a wind tunnel attached?
JamieBeeston said:
As has been said, those offering 'unlimited' deals will typically be adding 1Tb sata hdds without raid.. these drives are not designed for everyday server use, and will invariably fail, taking your data with it!
Often it's not even that. I've seen companies that use the law of averages... most people won't use more than a few MB (50 - 100 at most) for their stuff and they just pack the machine to the gunnel's. I guess these days they Xen it in to oblivion as well.
ThePassenger said:
Ahhh, it's a cute little un
4U chassis or has someone managed to shoe horn it in to a 1U chassis with a wind tunnel attached?
4U chassis or has someone managed to shoe horn it in to a 1U chassis with a wind tunnel attached?
We've gone 2u, a 1u chassis means only 4 hdds (2x SAS, 2x 2.5"
whereas the 2u chassis allows 8 (6x SAS, 2x 2.5" power draw is substantially reduced on the new Woodcrest servers, so only about 1.6a
ThePassenger said:
Often it's not even that. I've seen companies that use the law of averages... most people won't use more than a few MB (50 - 100 at most) for their stuff and they just pack the machine to the gunnel's. I guess these days they Xen it in to oblivion as well.
It's an unregulated industry where any kid with pocket money can get a 'reseller' account.. eventually everyone finds out what they're like and moves... those who're learnt pay the appropriate prices and move to a decent host, those who haven't just move to another kiddie host and repeat!! 
Gassing Station | Computers, Gadgets & Stuff | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff