Dear all,

I'm new here.

I'm the prospective Chief Technology Officer (hence name) of a new company and we require a website (obviously).
I will be acting as Webmaster/Host..and doing all the Tech stuff...
We are located in Europe.

Our site will have photos, videos (maybe downloadable), a forum (100+ users), news bulletins, stats and may be linked up to a database.
We will also be doing some e-commerce.

I've looked at a few hosts...there's millions out there...I'm lost...

Someone advised Dreamhost...but they're a little "layed back" for me...and they don't have phone support.
One thing I must insist on is 24/7/365 phone and email support.
Ideally, I would like a host in Europe, so I contacted fasthosts.com , they don't seem bad....but haven't heard back from them yet.

Can anyone advise anybody?
Here's a list of our requirements:


- Provide 24/7/365 support by email and phone, resolving problems in under 6 hours.
- At least 5Gb of webspace (Is that too much?)
- Very generous bandwidth/month (How much do I need?)
- Can support SSL, Paypal payments and so on…
- Can host Password protected pages in a "Private Area"
- Automatic backups (ideally daily or "on demand")
- 100% uptime or as can be expected
- A backup server
- Be reliable
- Have a strong presence in the market
- Not have any problems with heavy traffic
- Would support downloads of videos or files
- Provide software for forums and a guest book
- Have a control panel that was easy to use.
- At least 500 email accounts, unlimited size, unlimited attachments, IMAP
- No restictions such as hits per hour/day
- Load balancing (it appears to be important, is it?)

Can anyone advise me a reliable host with good support?

Our max price: $35/month.

I'm not looking for a startup, I really need a well established host, ideally in Europe, but any other English speaking country will do...

Thanking you in advance,

CTO

You might check out Hostway - I was with them for about five years before starting my own. They only thing I am not certain about is the on demand backups but I think they meet most of your other requirements.

Just make sure you pick between Windows & *NIX platforms.

100% uptime you are dreaming. Servers are not human and anything can happen. I would narrow it down to about 99% as servers will need to be rebooted so this blows away your 100%

Good luck and keep searching you will find the right one.

24/7 Phone Support costs alot.

Any particular reason for asking the phone support ? Just asking ....

support in under 6 hours via the web without phone support seems a bit much to me

CTechO,

With your requirements it should be safer if you go to dedicated server, but of course you have to raise your budget.

With your current budget I think you can try to slightly adjust your requirements to meet what the hosting market provides with that level of price.

Good luck.

I think sometimes people do think that if a host provides the phone support then it must be good. It also suggests that the eventual cost of the plan will cost you more as the host will get the money from you for all his advertisement and other expenses.

So I think one has to really think on what he can live with. But any way best luck !

I'm not sure if your budget is very realistic for the requirements you have. It sounds to me like your going to be running a mission critical commercial site. Your not going to want to trust your site to just any host. Experience, Reliability, and Strong Support is what your going to need... This wont come cheap!

Someone else suggested a dedicated server per your requirments. I pretty much agree with that! But regardles, just remember one thing.. You get what you pay for! I would try to redo your operating budget a little more to put more money into your hosting. In the end, this will ensure a better hosting experience!

Hi Guys,

I've been looking around...

Site5 look quite good and apparently answer fast.

gaffer

There has been alot of good reviews about them!

I'm sure you will find them to your satisfaction!