I've manage the tech stuff for three companies which independently ended up using 1and1 for xyz reasons.
Aside from not recommending 1and1, here's what I recommend you check out:
Our servers went down after an advertised scheduled maintenance. It took me about 3 hours to actually get to someone intelligent enough to answer me, only to find out that they didn't actually have direct contact with the sysadmins. Only IM and email. This was a call center in Indonesia.
So here's what I recommend:
a) can you find the support number on their site. Is it hidden behind layer upon layer of procedure, or is it prominent.
b) can you, a non registered user reach their Support number? (Not their sales). Pretend you are one of their clients, try to call them and say "I don't know my client number off the top of my head, but I know my domain name, can you help me out".
c) determine if they've got a call center. And if so, if the call center speaks your language.
d) try to determine from second hand experience or your own, the level of personal commitment you're gonna get from the people who physically touch your hardware. At 1and1 you can't actually ever get in touch with these people. They might as well be aliens.
Seriously, everything else is completely secondary. I'll tell you: when you have a live server that just vanishes for 72 hours (as it happened with 1and1), you can maybe live with the fact that it's not online, but you sure as hell can't live with the fact that nobody knows where it is... Is your server on fire? Is the harddrive toast? should you start re-imaging a new server?
We went for 72 full hours in complete darkness. No ping no nothing. With only entry level voice support.
And for all of these, I say, Rackspace is unbeatable. "Fanatical support" is their moto. They are expensive is their weakness. So much so that 2 out of the three companies I manage can't afford it. But as soon as they can, I will move them over.
by Memet — Mar 07
Aside from not recommending 1and1, here's what I recommend you check out:
Our servers went down after an advertised scheduled maintenance. It took me about 3 hours to actually get to someone intelligent enough to answer me, only to find out that they didn't actually have direct contact with the sysadmins. Only IM and email. This was a call center in Indonesia.
So here's what I recommend:
a) can you find the support number on their site. Is it hidden behind layer upon layer of procedure, or is it prominent.
b) can you, a non registered user reach their Support number? (Not their sales). Pretend you are one of their clients, try to call them and say "I don't know my client number off the top of my head, but I know my domain name, can you help me out".
c) determine if they've got a call center. And if so, if the call center speaks your language.
d) try to determine from second hand experience or your own, the level of personal commitment you're gonna get from the people who physically touch your hardware. At 1and1 you can't actually ever get in touch with these people. They might as well be aliens.
Seriously, everything else is completely secondary. I'll tell you: when you have a live server that just vanishes for 72 hours (as it happened with 1and1), you can maybe live with the fact that it's not online, but you sure as hell can't live with the fact that nobody knows where it is... Is your server on fire? Is the harddrive toast? should you start re-imaging a new server?
We went for 72 full hours in complete darkness. No ping no nothing. With only entry level voice support.
And for all of these, I say, Rackspace is unbeatable. "Fanatical support" is their moto. They are expensive is their weakness. So much so that 2 out of the three companies I manage can't afford it. But as soon as they can, I will move them over.