A really good hosting for a medium-sized website

[Andy_Miller]

Hello everybody!

I desperately need a new GOOD ISP.

This is what I need:
-NOT very expensive;
-Unix\Linux\FreeBSD;
-PHP/MySQL;
-Cron support;
-Protected directories;
-Web-mail;
-High bandwidth;
-Good customer support, of course.

Reason? My site was down too often and the number of visitors was too unpredictable. It jumped from 400 to 60 within one week. I ordered a profound examination of my web-site at http://www.dotcom-monitor.com (website and network monitoring company). In their report the following reasons were mentioned:
-"Slow Website Response"
-"Slow Web Page Response"
-"Varying Website Response from Different Geographical Locations"

I'm sure it is Extcom's (my current provider) fault, but communication with the Customer Support brings only promises and excuses. This persuades me that it's high time to move my site to a completely different place.



Your advice? I have two companies in view but ALL your recommendations are welcomed

[Alex]

Besides personal recommendation which by far is the best method (IMO), I would also suggest researching them by the following methods:

-hosting directories
-reviews
-search engine search (page rank/links, etc.)
-whois lookups for relevant company data (like when their domain or company was founded, etc.)

ASK QUESTIONS
Try contacting them in however form they have with questions on their service and perhaps some technical questions to see their response rate and skill level.

Also, many established companies offer 30 day money back guarantee. This allows you to take them for a test drive. All this research can take a bit of time, but in the end you are the one that wins! -Good luck..

[augustine]

I recommending getting a low end dedciated server for this since stability is an issue.
Because shared hosting has a lot of limitations.