Local Website Hosting Companies?

[BBatesokc]

Can anyone recommend a reputable and local (as in OKC, Moore, Edmond) Web hosting company? I can open a phone book or do a Google search, but that's not what I'm looking for as I don't know the reputation of any of the companies. Wondering if anyone here has any first hand or direct word-of-mouth experience with any local Website hosting companies?

I've bounced my main Wordpress site from several of the low cost big name hosts (Blue, GoDaddy, and now HostGator), but it's time to consider a dedicated server, so I figured if I'm going to spend the money I might as well consider local options as well. Even with all the big name hosts spewing "99.9% uptime guarantee, unlimited this and that", my site is down at least once a week and has been erring out (500 Internal Server Error) for the last 24-hours.

Recommendations?

[kevinpate]

Brian, the one local guy I used ages ago is no longer around. From 02-08 I used a couple of different hosts when I kept up a scouting council site. One of the three is now also kaput. After them I used 1and1.com for a while and then I used the hosting package made available to editors at a directory where I help edit.

I had no issues at 1and1 at all. I left there solely because the other opportunity became available. I think the only times I ever had a 500 error at 1and1 were due to making a mistake on my end due to being tired or rushed.

[webvisiongroup]

BBatesokc, Hi my name is Steven with Web Vision Hosting LLC, based out of Oklahoma City, OK. For several years we have been providing top notch, enterprise level, custom web development and hosting. Please feel free to call with any questions 405-301-3212.

[venture]

Can anyone recommend a reputable and local (as in OKC, Moore, Edmond) Web hosting company? I can open a phone book or do a Google search, but that's not what I'm looking for as I don't know the reputation of any of the companies. Wondering if anyone here has any first hand or direct word-of-mouth experience with any local Website hosting companies?

I've bounced my main Wordpress site from several of the low cost big name hosts (Blue, GoDaddy, and now HostGator), but it's time to consider a dedicated server, so I figured if I'm going to spend the money I might as well consider local options as well. Even with all the big name hosts spewing "99.9% uptime guarantee, unlimited this and that", my site is down at least once a week and has been erring out (500 Internal Server Error) for the last 24-hours.

Recommendations?

Forget hosting companies and do it yourself. Figure out what you are looking at being charged for a dedicated server and set that as your budget. You can get a very good box for a Wordpress site and save the hassles dealing with a web hosting company. Cox isn't all that expensive for a static IP/business class account if you want to use them for data. The biggest expense will probably be the OS for the system, unless you go with a free linux version. Put on Apache and MySQL and call it a day. Or if you like Windows, IIS with MySQL added in does very well with the WordPress sites I host.

It all comes down to your budget and the amount of time you need the site hosted. Plus if you do it yourself, you don't have to worry about pointless HD limits, bandwidth limits, and how many domains/subdomains you can use.

[windowphobe]

I've done some business with webhero.com, and still have a domain registered there. Bob Crull is, I think, one of the industry Good Guys.

[BBatesokc]

@Venture79 - Would love to do it myself, but I know ZERO, NADA, ZILCH when it comes to that stuff. I have to pay a premium to have customer support on standby 24/7. I looked up a few local options. Couldn't believe several in the metro who promote themselves online didn't list a phone number - they want you to email them! I figure a company is most accessible when they are trying to make a sale - if they make that difficult, then it doesn't bode well for future dealings.

Reached out to WebVisionGroup (see post #3), but his guy/boss/whatever, didn't get back to me today (no biggie, but I'm anxious), so I pulled the trigger and went with a $225/month option at HostGator. No Contract, so I can stop or move whenever I want. My site has been down all day, so that's measurable money out of my pocket already. We'll see how it goes, but I'd still like some doable local options as I'm completely up to transferring to local hosting.

[BBatesokc]

@WindowPhobe, thanks for the contact. Wish I would have seen them earlier. However, I didn't see a dedicated server option. Regardless, I may give them a call. Definitely like their domain registration prices, so I'll probably transfer them locally.

[John1744]

I run a couple websites that handle vBulletin and IPB forums with one having about 100 concurrent users and the other about 50. We have pretty good traffic numbers and we're just using a simple Virtual Private Server (VPS) from wiredtree.com for about $50 per month. Now I'm not familiar with your wordpress blog but unless it's one of the more popular blogs in the area I don't really see how you're using enough juice to require a dedicated server. I do also know that the sites you have used in the past (hostgator, godaddy) are generally known in the web hosting community as being utter crap. A good host can do way more with limited resources than a crap host with massive resources.

[BBatesokc]

I run a couple websites that handle vBulletin and IPB forums with one having about 100 concurrent users and the other about 50. We have pretty good traffic numbers and we're just using a simple Virtual Private Server (VPS) from wiredtree.com for about $50 per month. Now I'm not familiar with your wordpress blog but unless it's one of the more popular blogs in the area I don't really see how you're using enough juice to require a dedicated server. I do also know that the sites you have used in the past (hostgator, godaddy) are generally known in the web hosting community as being utter crap. A good host can do way more with limited resources than a crap host with massive resources.

I've gone through several hosts, and while some techies would scoff at the services provided, its really hard to knock companies that meet the needs of 90% of individuals and small businesses and do it for as little as $6/month. I've tried shared and VPS hosting to no avail with different hosts. I don't host any video locally (all embedded from YouTube and Vimeo) but still my resources and traffic are very high. I don't know what is 'good' and what is 'bad' traffic numbers and I consider my Alexa ranking to be pretty low, but my ad revenue off just one site makes up for what many people get as a 40-hour a week salary, so its worth keeping going. If this dedicated server fixes the outage issues then I'll be a happy camper at the price they are quoting.

[venture]

@Venture79 - Would love to do it myself, but I know ZERO, NADA, ZILCH when it comes to that stuff. I have to pay a premium to have customer support on standby 24/7. I looked up a few local options. Couldn't believe several in the metro who promote themselves online didn't list a phone number - they want you to email them! I figure a company is most accessible when they are trying to make a sale - if they make that difficult, then it doesn't bode well for future dealings.

Reached out to WebVisionGroup (see post #3), but his guy/boss/whatever, didn't get back to me today (no biggie, but I'm anxious), so I pulled the trigger and went with a $225/month option at HostGator. No Contract, so I can stop or move whenever I want. My site has been down all day, so that's measurable money out of my pocket already. We'll see how it goes, but I'd still like some doable local options as I'm completely up to transferring to local hosting.

Ouch. If you want to look at doing a home based option, let me know. I can try to put something together to help you on what all you would need. Let you see the cost and go from there on what makes more sense.

[BBatesokc]

Ouch. If you want to look at doing a home based option, let me know. I can try to put something together to help you on what all you would need. Let you see the cost and go from there on what makes more sense.

Thanks. I looked into just bypassing HostGator and just ordering directly from their supplier and hosting it myself - but I really want something turn-key - pay my money and it just works. I don't have time to learn to be an IT guy. At least with this setup I can move all my websites (5) to one server and even host the wordpress sites other have me put together for them - I'll collect those fees instead of their host and that will almost pay for my monthly dedicated server costs.

Its just a shame I can't seem to locate a local company with a good reputation that could host it on a dedicated server for $100-$200/month.

[venture]

Thanks. I looked into just bypassing HostGator and just ordering directly from their supplier and hosting it myself - but I really want something turn-key - pay my money and it just works. I don't have time to learn to be an IT guy. At least with this setup I can move all my websites (5) to one server and even host the wordpress sites other have me put together for them - I'll collect those fees instead of their host and that will almost pay for my monthly dedicated server costs.

Its just a shame I can't seem to locate a local company with a good reputation that could host it on a dedicated server for $100-$200/month.

Yeah I hear ya. If I had the time right now I could probably work out something for you, but my plate is just overflowing with working to get some software developed and out the door for testing.

[gecko77]

Stick with HostGator. I've used them for years and any time I've had to call or chat with them they've been great. Like you said you don't want to be an IT guy. You're better off spending time building your own business.