Your First Host?

[Granted]

I have fond memories (and nightmares) of my first hosts. Some were amazing and great to work with- several were not. Then again, I did go the free host route, and finding a good, legit free host seems to be like finding a needle in a haystack.

Where did you start out? Who was your first host and are they still alive? The hosting industry is so competitive that the majority of my previous hosts went down the drain.

The one host I remember fondly came from one of those post-for-host sites. You'd post a certain number on the forum and receive points which could get you a free year of hosting and a free year of a domain name. While I don't remember the name of the forum or site anymore, I recall how great they were when they were still active. The hosting package was great, never had any hiccups, and it was essentially free give or take a few hundred posts to earn it.

 

[domz]

I started out with bluehost.com. Terribly overload servers.

 

[HostOX]

Pretty funny looking back.

I first bought a reseller from hostgator, looking back those servers were pretty overloaded

 

[hostloc]

My first one is webhost4life which was later acquired by endurance

 

[HostLeet]

My first host was BlueHost back in 2006, I believe. Oh, the memories..

 

[Zagor]

IX Web Hosting. They were good in some aspects but their support was utterly slow. Also, they didn't have advanced features that others had at that time.

 

[SenseiSteve]

My first web host was Intecnet - they no longer exist and their owner is in prison.

 

[ldcdc]

It's funny how little I can recall from so long ago. The very first host I used was a free one, could have been named 100free or 50megs or something like that. The site was run by 2 fellows and they were using IM for support. Being new to the *nix world, they gave me an advice I stuck to: name your files using low caps, or you may find it hard to recall their exact URL. After a while they stopped responding to my messages - I was a newbie that needed too much hand holding I suppose.

All in all, it was a good learning experience for me. I built my first (ugly) web page then, using Netscape Composer, if memory serves me right.

The one host I remember fondly came from one of those post-for-host sites.

I've never used one of those, but such hosts were reasonably popular for a while, I do recall that. I still think that customer-to-customer support is not an entirely bad idea, and thus, forum based support.

 

[Proaxxs-peter]

IX Web Hosting. They were good in some aspects but their support was utterly slow. Also, they didn't have advanced features that others had at that time.

How skilled is their staff? When you need customer service of a technical nature, you need it immediately, right? Find out the availability of their systems administrators. Send them a support ticket and see how fast they respond.

 

[Jgwynne]

my first host was a windows reseller package based here in the UK

joe

 

[obosor]

My first host was socheaphost.com and Now I own the So Cheap Host.

 

[Artashes]

My first host was socheaphost.com and Now I own the So Cheap Host.

I am not sure I understand. How can your first hosting company be the service that you now own? Did you buy the company that provided you with your first hosting service?

 

[Bullten]

My first host was byethost.com. I bought there share plan and really I feel they are better than many other hosting companies which have just brand value...

 

[easyhostmedia]

I am not sure I understand. How can your first hosting company be the service that you now own? Did you buy the company that provided you with your first hosting service?

Art. I think he was self advertising

http://whois.domaintools.com/socheaphost.com

Creation Date: 17-Mar-2009
Expiration Date: 17-Mar-2013

if he had later purchased this then it would have shown a record updated date, which it does not so the domain has not changed hands since registered

 

[Artashes]

if he had later purchased this then it would have shown a record updated date, which it does not so the domain has not changed hands since registered

How can you tell if the domain changed hands? I also wondered where you'd see that information. Whois doesn't list all the owners, does it?

Nothing wrong, I guess, with starting your first hosting experience with your own hosting company (if it was a reseller package, for example). However, it was just the phrasing that confused me: "my first host was this and that and NOW I own it".

 

[easyhostmedia]

How can you tell if the domain changed hands? I also wondered where you'd see that information. Whois doesn't list all the owners, does it?

Nothing wrong, I guess, with starting your first hosting experience with your own hosting company (if it was a reseller package, for example). However, it was just the phrasing that confused me: "my first host was this and that and NOW I own it".

normally in a whois record it will show

Creation Date: 17-Mar-2009
Expiration Date: 17-Mar-2013

which is the date of reg 17-Mar-2009 and the expiry date 17-Mar-2013

if the domain had changed hands/changed nameservers etc. then it would display like

Created On: 17-Mar-2009
Last Updated On: 12-June-2011
Expiration Date: 17-Mar-2013

but as it just shows

Creation Date: 17-Mar-2009
Expiration Date: 17-Mar-2013

this means the registrant and nameservers are the same as it was when the domain was first registered

Nothing wrong, I guess, with starting your first hosting experience with your own hosting company (if it was a reseller package, for example).

true as a lot do this now
and his phrase

"my first host was this and that and NOW I own it".

could be seen as self advertising

 

[Artashes]

Isn't the "Last Updated" status mean when the domain was renewed?

 

[easyhostmedia]

Isn't the "Last Updated" status mean when the domain was renewed?

no the "last updates" means this is the last time the domain record was updated with new/chaned information, either renewed, registrant/registrar change,nameserver change etc.

 

[agentblack]

Our first host was Limitless Hosting and they are no longer in business. We moved to Echoservers who was great until the previous owner sold out to a different company. Since he sold out, we have been having some issues.

 

[easyhostmedia]

We moved to Echoservers who was great until the previous owner sold out to a different company. Since he sold out, we have been having some issues.

i think Echoservers is one of those hosting companies that rather than advertise they are selling they offer their business to a client of their after maybe the client states they are looking to expand or the company itself suggest they are thinking of selling and a client says they would purchase, but the client being just a basic reseller has no idea on how to run servers etc. a prime example of this type of sale is tophostinguk
http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=1015692 and http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=1022292 and http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=1046492 when the owner sold out to a client