Why are windows hosting providers so expensive?

Ken Robertson:

If you code something in PHP/Ruby, you run it on Linux.  If you code it in .NET, you use Windows.

 So you are saying that the cost to host those websites had nothing to do with their design? Or choice in programming?

 Lets face it.  The cost to host is a huge barrier for thousands of potential customers. It's a huge barrior for me and frankly it's the only barrior. I have yet to find a host that can provide what I get for the same cost, or at least something damn close.

Well I do tend to agree with Edgardo, knowing that it is not always the case, but frequently is.

 I looked into getting Windows Server 2003 so I could run a ASP.Net server. Going with the cheapest I could find (Web features only) it still would have cost $399 with 5 licenses. Then there would be the cost of SQL Server, I guess you could argue that I could use the Express edition with some sort of web interface. But talking in terms of supporting large communities is an Express Database going to hold up?

 Compared to the $0 it costs me to get Ubuntu Linux, Apache, PHP, MySql, and yes ASP.Net (v1.1 with mod_mono) I have a decent setup for nothing but my time. Again I have researched many hosts and found Windows hosting almost always be on the pricier side compared to Linux.
 

What about comparing Windows hosting providers?  I'm currently using M6.net and they're ok.  The prices they offer are good and comparable to ASPNix, but I'm not completely satisfied with the service.  Their site control panel is definitely not up to par.  Has anybody else used them and had any problems?  Has anybody had any problems with ASPNix?  I'm hearing a lot of good things about them as far as their packages they offer, but what about the actual use of the tools they give you?

I've used their services for some months and I'm so happy with their services and tools.

I also have some clients or some friends that I recommended their services to them and they're all happy with their services/tools.

Actually here isn't a community to compare Windows hosters and you can find better info on ASP.NET forums but so far ASPnix has been the best hsoter for Community Server and all clients confirm this.

I use ASPNIX for DotNetNuke hosting.

 

I do not generally have problems with them, but every time I had a problem, I received no answer.  If they fix the issue, they do not alert you.  One time I was having a problem with the plesk control panel, (it was a problem affecting all users), and the problem was fixed after two days, but I, nor anybody else was ever alerted.

 They have a support forum that is basically useless, and if you post some negative comments about their service, they will delete the whole thread, even if it contains some useful indication.

My bottomline is: if you use ASPNIX, do it at your oun risk.  You may be lucky and never have an issue, but if you do, you'll know why it is so cheap.  They basically have no customer support.

 

John Grigazlou

John, I'm happy with the ASPNix support. My 2 or 3 questions got answered very fast and correct.

I've done some uptime tracking by a service called WatchMouse (watchmouse.com) these are the results for last 2 weeks:

nr  name                                  type    uptime  checks
1. Halluf2                                  http   96.92%  2047, 63 failed

 nr  name                                  type    uptime  checks
1. Halluf2                                  http   96.38%  1327, 48 failed

The errors reported are 99% timeout issues, I suspect this is because the application restarts every 20 minutes.

But still, as a frequent visitor of my own site I experience very little downtime. One time a week or so I get not response at all. For example last weekend it turned out there we doing maintenance on the database servers. This is done by night in the States, but here in the Netherlands it's around noon... I would still recommend ASPNix because of the low pricing and high number of tools and possibilities.

This is the error report of last week:


Detailed error reports (all times in UTC+2)

1. Halluf2
    http://www.watchmouse.com/logviewer.php?vrid=28338&veo=1
    03-19 03:46..03:51    1 Timeout during negotiation
    03-19 06:47..06:52    1 Timeout during negotiation
    03-19 12:04..12:09    1 Timeout during negotiation
    03-19 17:13..17:18    1 Timeout during negotiation
    03-19 17:18..17:23    1 Timeout during negotiation
    03-19 17:23..17:28    1 Timeout during negotiation
    03-19 17:28..17:33    1 Timeout during negotiation
    03-19 17:33..17:38    1 Timeout during negotiation
    03-19 19:02..19:07    1 Timeout during negotiation
    03-19 21:34..21:39    1 Timeout during negotiation
    03-19 21:39..21:44    1 Timeout during negotiation
    03-19 21:44..21:49    1 Timeout during negotiation
    03-19 21:59..22:04    1 Timeout during negotiation
    03-19 23:42..23:47    1 Timeout during negotiation
    03-20 09:18..09:23    1 Timeout during negotiation
    03-20 09:24..09:29    1 Timeout during negotiation
    03-20 09:34..09:39    1 Timeout during negotiation
    03-20 13:28..13:33    1 Timeout during negotiation
    03-20 13:33..13:38    1 Timeout during negotiation
    03-20 19:36..19:41    1 Timeout during negotiation
    03-21 13:46..13:51    1 Timeout during negotiation
    03-21 15:29..15:34    1 Timeout during negotiation
    03-21 16:09..16:14    1 Timeout during negotiation
    03-21 19:20..19:25    1 Timeout during negotiation
    03-21 22:21..22:26    1 Timeout during negotiation
    03-22 04:22..04:27    1 Timeout during negotiation
    03-22 07:23..07:28    1 Timeout during negotiation
    03-22 13:10..13:15    1 Timeout during negotiation
    03-22 16:11..16:16    1 Timeout during negotiation
    03-22 21:59..22:04    1 Timeout during negotiation
    03-22 22:04..22:09    1 Timeout during negotiation
    03-23 09:18..09:23    1 Timeout during negotiation
    03-23 11:34..11:39    1 Timeout during negotiation
    03-23 14:36..14:41    1 Timeout during negotiation
    03-23 16:53..16:58    1 Timeout during negotiation
    03-23 17:38..17:43    1 Timeout during negotiation
    03-23 19:45..19:50    1 Timeout during negotiation
    03-23 19:50..19:55    1 Timeout during negotiation
    03-23 19:55..20:00    1 Timeout during negotiation
    03-23 21:28..21:33    1 Timeout during negotiation
    03-23 21:33..21:38    1 Timeout during negotiation
    03-23 21:38..21:43    1 Timeout during negotiation
    03-24 00:40..00:45    1 Timeout during negotiation
    03-24 10:01..10:06    1 Timeout during negotiation
    03-24 15:44..15:49    1 Timeout during negotiation
    03-24 16:59..17:04    1 Timeout during transfer
    03-24 18:37..18:42    1 Timeout during negotiation
    03-24 18:42..18:47    1 Timeout during negotiation
    03-24 18:47..18:52    1 Timeout during negotiation
    03-24 18:52..18:57    1 Timeout during negotiation
    03-24 18:57..19:02    1 Timeout during negotiation
    03-24 19:02..19:07    1 Timeout during negotiation
    03-24 19:07..19:12    1 Timeout during negotiation
    03-24 19:13..19:18    1 Timeout during negotiation
    03-24 19:18..19:23    1 Timeout during negotiation
    03-24 20:37..20:42    1 Timeout during negotiation
    03-24 20:42..20:47    1 Timeout during negotiation
    03-24 23:48..23:53    1 Timeout during negotiation
    03-25 01:50..01:55    1 Timeout during negotiation
    03-25 02:49..02:54    1 Timeout during negotiation
    03-25 05:49..05:54    1 Timeout during negotiation
    03-25 09:52..09:57    1 Timeout during negotiation
    03-25 15:53..15:58    1 Timeout during negotiation

I would recommend ASPnix as much as I would recommend getting a root canal without even having a cavity.  It is a one man show over there and the  captain of the ship is asleep at the wheel.  I've long since  left  and gone in with a friend on a server elsewhere.   With ASPnix I had a VPS and it would go down literally every month.  When I would try to contact support I would get little or no help until they found they could not procrastinate any longer their solution would be to simply move my site to another server... which would invariably break (since they never actually take the time to fix anything correctly).   Or they would simply imply it was my fault though I had made no changes whatsoever.  I find they have cheap equipment there that constantly breaks and requires constant monitoring ...  too many email outages as well as SQL server outages... too many excuses for problems when they arise.  Their 24x7 support is more like 4 x 2 support  (4 hours about 2 days a week)  Most of the time when the "support" guy is actually awake and decides to help people it is roughly between 2AM - 6AM Mountain time.  Doesn't help many US customers with hours such as that.  For those of you who are happy best of luck to you as I'm confident you will see what I'm talking about soon enough.  It is simply too much for one person to handle over there not to mention the person that is handing it now is  quite possibly the laziest person I've ever had the misfortune of  paying for a service.

 

That is just my two cents for what it is worth to ya...

 

It's all about price/quality balance. I'm quite happy with the possibilities for this price, and I can live with some occasional downtime.

I'm not hosting a business critical site, just a nice to have community site for me and my friends...

I signed up with ASPNix because of recommendations from some users here and after a year I think I'll leave. It really is a one-man show over there, Roma is the only person I've seen who deals with support issues whether it's in the forums or in response to support tickets. Apparently there's a system admin over there too based on what Roma has said. A couple of months ago my site was down every couple of days because their SQL Server had problems. I've also personally experienced the issue of negative threads being deleted over there. While my site was going down me and others were complaining, trying to  figure out when it happened, etc. After everything was fixed the thread was gone! After this I learned deleting negative threads is the norm over there.

The prices are attractive, but I guess you get what you pay for, eh.

ASPnix has upgraded all the hardware and now very reliable and fast. Also support replies within 15 minutes.

See all new web site http://aspnix.com

by the way, the site is a show off of GraffitiCMS