"Friends are not forever" ... or: "Babuschka syndrom", a new model for "virtual hosting"?
... in answer to Topic Surpass Hosting - "a friend to the XOOPS community"

First I want to express my happiness, that strong providers are beginning to look for partnerships with the xoops-community. This might help to fulfill the technical requirements for running a xoops-site and also saves newbies a lot of time while looking for a good host.

On my search for a host I also found a lot of irritating/confusing information about SURPASSHOSTING.COM/HOSTDIME.COM, which question the reliability of a provider with an intransparent system of "sub-companies".

companies related with hostdime:
HASWEB.COM, HOSTDIME.COM, SURPASSHOSTING.COM, VIRTUEHOSTING.COM, SERVERCOVE.COM, INFINITUM TECHNOLOGIES?
http://www.webhostingtalk.com/archive/thread/146478-1.html (HOSTDIME/SURPASSHOSTING)
http://www.hostingtech.com/?m=show&id=162 (HOSTDIME/ SERVERCOVE)
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,10172791%7Emode=flat (datacenter dimenoc/nac/rackspace)

Especially for commercial xoops-sites and resellers the reliability of a provider is a major aspect. SURPASSHOSTING is a "sister" of HOSTDIME, which is envolved in sequence of followup-companies looking like a russian babuschka puppet made up of many different shells (mother containing daugther, being mother again containing daughter ...). With HOSTDIME it just seems to be the other way around, each company being „surpassed“ by a newly founded sister-company.

Whois HOSTDIME.COM?
http://www.webhostingtalk.com/archive/thread/229287-1.html
"Additionally, WHOIS records indicate HOSTDIME.COM was created in January 2002 and is registered to Emmanuel Vivar, the same name behind Servercove ... However, a query of the State of Florida's online records shows NO registered corporation by the name of HOSTDIME Communications or HOSTDIME, Inc". But they do show a fictitious name filing dated 9/12/2003 for "HOSTDIME.COM" as belonging to World Web Technologies, Inc., a Florida corporation filed/created the same day by Emmanuel Vivar".

Hopefully some knowledgeable people can shed some light on SURPASSHOSTING/ VIRTUEHOSTING and - in case of doubt - name alternatives (how about fuitadnet.com?). I dont want to warm up old discussions with many unanswered questions, but I would like to ask for the requirements, that providers should fulfill to support XOOPS and the growing number of xoops-sites? Is it possible to establish an official "xoops-partnership" (if not already done), which could better the quality of the providers services?

All the best to all xoopsies and their providers

Yes, we saw this in the other thread.

So far I don't see a need to rate providers based on their company structure. We have only heard good things about Surpass Hosting.

It is good to see that XOOPS users are aware and sceptical towards such an important thing of a XOOPS site as a webhosting company is, and I thank you for bringing this up.

An official XOOPS partnership for webhosts? Sounds like a nice idea - if we can get enough webhosts to go for it.

Hmm This sounds interesting, I'd be interested in helping set up some kind of criteria for what a good webhost should provide. Perhaps we could setup a little group to work on this?

Having good webhosts for XOOPS users will, I'm sure, help the community and product develop faster and more efficiently...

How would one do this within the current XOOPS community structure?

Jonathan

This sounds like a Product Development Job - so contact DLH and see, if he will not welcome you to the team with arms wide open (which I would think he would)

Yes, I have some real doubts too. It appears surpass hosting are not so unique after all. As pointed out above, there is some kind of weird thing going on with this host and it's claim to be so hot and "unique".

This is what I find advertised on the reseller page on surpasshosting.com:

Why should I choose Surpass Hosting?
You have access to the most sophisticated top of the line servers, loads of features AND one important feature we give that no one else does. We host your main website for FREE. We give you true space and bandwidth to resell. Your website doesn't take away from the space we provide you. For example, say you get the Silver plan, your website will not use up part of the 5000MB of the reseller plan. Your website alone gets 5000MB space aside from the 5000MB you can resell. The bandwidth limit on the free, main account (on all reseller plans) is 10GB. *Space on the main account and reseller account can not be combined and no additional domains can be hosted on the free, main account.

Now, this is what you'll find on the reseller page at hostdime.com:

Why should I choose HostDime instead of others??
As a HostDime reseller, You have access to the most sophisticated top of the line servers AND one important feature We give that no one else does is we host your main website for FREE. Yes you heard right. We give you a true space and bandwidth to resell. Your website doesn't take away from the space we provide you. For example when you go to fill our online form, it will ask you for your domain. Say you get the silver plan, your domain will not use up part of the 3000MB of the reseller plan. Your website alone gets 3000MB Space aside from the 3000MB you can resell. The bandwidth Limit on the free account is 10 gigs free isn't that great? YES we know. so go sign up now here ~~> SignUp Forum * Space can not be combined and no additional domains can be hosted on the main free account *

You can see many more similarities between the two sites if you look closely. For instance, it appears that they share a number of servers with the same names -- check their status pages: hostdime and surpass

So I can tell you that I feel somewhat relieved I didn't sign up with surpass (and I don't think I will with hostdime either )
I first became a bit uneasy about surpass when I was browsing through their pages and found a few links not working -- this is always a warning sign. Then I looked at their terms of service and found a few things that didn't add up. I posted a few questions in the forums, which got some weird answers, and so on. Before I viewed this thread here, I had already made up my mind not to go with them when I found that they don't offer IP addresses as standard with reseller packages (although they would if you pay them extra).
I am not saying that you should not sign up with them, they might be ok, and some people posting here seem very happy with them. But I thought that the xoop community should be aware that surpass is not as 'unique' as it is claimed on their site (And, of course, this in itself is not a crime, but when it comes to someone hosting my sites ....)

I've mailed him and will see what I can do.

Jonathan

This is a debate that I would rather observe then get involved in deeply. Although I can say that as a hosting provider for small people like me, they are just one of many affordable services available. I can claim how good a service they are in terms of having reseller accounts, in fact I stay away from them where possible.

If Surpass is a reseller themselves and am running my site off their servers, so far, I have no complaints. If this is the case where they are a reseller, I have to say they are doing a great job. I know a bad reselleer when I see one, Surpass never gave me that impression for my simple shared hosting needs.

I have to admit, I never fully appreciated or understodd the entore complexty of hosting solutions from a provider standpoint, however this conversation is informative to say the least.

All I know is that I am happy with my shared hosting account, certainlly the best provider I have used in the past 3 years.

If go the dedicated or reseller route, I obviously have much to learn. I don't think I would be a reseller though, I've seen enough bad ones to not want to play that game.

Quote/
"First I want to express my happiness, that strong providers are beginning to look for partnerships with the xoops-community. This might help to fulfill the technical requirements for running a xoops-site and also saves newbies a lot of time while looking for a good host."
/End Quote

We did not seek out to form a partnership here. We do not have a partnership (if we did, no one told us :)). This good fortune found us. Many XOOPS users recently started hosting with Surpass, because as was stated we are a "strong provider". As time went on, we noticed the trend and decided to give back by offering the free month of service. Not many have even emailed us asking about it, we are going to have to sneak the months in. Shortly after that announcement, we really started noticing how great of a tool XOOPS is, so we contributed to its development and probably will again more times the future. Now as the good comments come rolling in about us, the sunshine gets blocked by a cloud.. it is expected but this is basically what we have to say:

The fact that our company is partnered with another only means we have a large hold on the market, because we have the facilities and the stablity to do so.

Quote/
Mithrandir:
So far I don't see a need to rate providers based on their company structure. We have only heard good things about Surpass Hosting.
End Quote/

We will continue to provide the best services and the lowest prices that we can, and if anyone doesn't want to host with us because we are partners with other companies (which is the only reason we have our own data center to operate out of, growth powered by growth) then that is fine. The best hosting company for one person, isn't the best for another. We don't expect to host every site in this world, but we can try. All that we expect and hope to achieve is that each client that signs up with us, stays with us for the lifetime of their business or their project, because they realize how much we care. We have had growing pains and therefore, we have grown. The end goal for everyone is just simply, a good service that everyone is welcome to try, and hopefully it will be perfect for them and their needs.

Thanks for listening.

asche,

We appreciate your research and comments. I would like to Clear some things up if I may.

HostDime Is the parent company Started Business in Dec 2001 and domain was registered in Jan 2002
Surpass Is a subsidary of the parent company with it's own management.
HostDime Purchased Servercove to exand more into the dedicated Server Market.
VirtueHosting is not affilated with Any hostdime subsidaries. Virtuehosting is client of hostdime. Virtue rents dedicated servers from HostDime


SurpassHosting Has not asked XOOPS for any partnership. Surpas merely made a donation to the XOOPS community to give back to the community.

As a newly registered member here I can't figure out still how your concern is mainly about partnerships of XOOPS with web host's.

We are a diversified company who has many subsidary companies to offer services to varios markets. I do not see where this is seen upon to be wrong.

We are not resellers of anyone nor is Surpass Nor is HostDime

We operate our own data center owned by us 100%
How many other web host's can say that?

Regarding your questions about the data center

DimeNoc 111 North Orange Ave, Orlando FL 32801
80% of our servers reside here

We have our main company server off network with rackspace in case we ever do have a network issue we can still communicate with our clients. We do plan on worst
case scenario as we do care about communicating with our clients in case something does happen

Nac Data center was where we grew from. Our first 50 servers were located at nac and we still have some servers there as we move about 2 a week down to DimeNoc

I can appreciate your concerns as possibly a prespective client and I hope I have cleared all your doubts.

Why have different companies? Simple we have a business plan to target all kind of budget hosting clients. This is very common, Just like cars toyota = lexus, cars are very similar in look and in service, but the price difference is one of the main differences.

Sam's Club = Walmart

I just don't see how this is seen as "shady"
We apologize if we have present ourselves in a way which can be misleading, those are sure not our intentions so please do accept our apologies.


We have come from a long road, and yes we have had bumps as we grew, but that has only made us a better company. We learned from mistakes we made ourselves. One thing for sure is that we are not a new company, we excel in our level of expertise from a technical, business, and financial standpoint. We have managed to have one of the best prices in the market because we have strived to get the best prices from our bandwidth providors. We simply pass long the savings to you. We are a 100% profitable company since 2002 with hosting more then 50,000 domains world wide I sincerly hope you can give us the chance to prove ourselves to anyone who can pass our roads.

We have tremendous pride in our growth and will continue to give the best level of service which has only been learned from years of experience. We may not be perfect but we will always truely strive to do our best and we do sincerely mean that

if anyone has any questions or doubts please do give me a call personally

Manny > 407-426-7844

The one thing we would hate to accomplish is lies and shadiness.

well there you go :)

straight from both of the horses mouth's (as to speak)

some people do jump the gun too quick..

i was considering surpass as their package looks of excellent quality and better than the package i am on at mo.. we have a 20gb monthly bandwidth at mo, but we're looking for more as we grow.. at least for the main site etc, the next phase is to setup an mp3 server as we have partners who are record companies and world class DJ's, so copyright wouldn't be an issue.. after that we will be going into streaming radio, but have yet to find a server cheap enough to warrant setting up that could handle the bandwidth at low cost..