hosting company?

[Byte 2.0]

Has anyone tried totalchoicehosting.com

I am thinking about setting up on their cheap 4 dollar a month package.

[LiVeWiRe]

Byte 2.0,

I'm looking at different web hosting companies too...saw this from james8547 in another thread. He also has a link to their site in his sig...not sure if he is affiliated with them or not? Perhaps you could PM him or he may stop by this thread now?

Originally posted by james8547 I use GoDaddy for domain registration and TotalChoiceHosting for hosting services.

-LW

[LiVeWiRe]

Sorry, here's the thread I referred to:

Domain Registering

-LW

[james8547]

Hi!

I've dealt with TCH for around 2 yrs. now. They are a really good webhosting company. IMHO, better value than GoDaddy's Hosting. I transferred all of the domains that I've worked on to them (with approval from the domain owners of course).

TCH hosts www.james-cpa.com (my personal site...basically my email address), www.fuzelicious.com, www.awards1.biz, www.edlittman.com, www.etconstruction.biz, www.rucuban.org (local Rutgers University club). All of the accounts are silver hosting (prepaid 1 yr. so we get an free month ). I chose silver hosting since the space & bandwidth almost doubles for 1 month (compared to the starter plan). I didn't know I was going to transfer so much accounts to them. I would have opted for a dedicated server plan to make my job easier.

Features
Their features are many and good. Check the link at my sig for more info. It pretty much spells it out for you.

Pricing
TCH is the best value for the buck. I've researched this well since my supervisor at work asked me to find a more cost-effective webhost. I even made an Excel worksheet comparing GoDaddy, TCH and a few other not-popular hosts. TCH came up on top. It wasn't even close. This was the main reason that I signed up for a personal account at TCH. I'll check at work if I can find the Excel file.

Money Back Guarantee
They have a 30-Day trial period. They'll completely refund your $$$ if you cancel within the 30-day period. No questions asked.

They'll even give your money back if you pre-paid for a year and cancelled before the end of the year. The refund is pro-rated of course.

Tech Support
Their tech support is mainly through their online forums (http://www.totalchoicehosting.com/forums/). The atmosphere is similar to PCMech. They also have a number of tutorials posted in their forums.

You can also contact tech support through their "Help Desk" which is similar to email. AIM & Y Messenger are also another means of communication. Most of their staff are available for txt messaging (even the company's president, believe it or not, tchgurubill in AIM).

Personally, I've never really dealt with their tech support since I rarely need tech support (not to sound cocky or boastful ). But they do have a US number for emergency. I saw it somewhere on their site but I do not know it off the top of my head.

Cust. Support
I contacted customer support for a trial-period refund since one of the sites that I worked for decided to stick with N$. I really don't know why they'd rather pay $20 per month but it was their money. It's beyond logic and my comprehension. Nevertheless, I did not have a problem getting the full refund.

Contact is through "Help Desk." I asked them to park a domain name on top of another domain (not forwarding but like an add-on so I can setup the email for the other domain). I also asked them to change my username since it's randomly generated. Even I can't remember it. The response time was less than 2 hrs (via Help Desk ticket).

Up Time
I personally never experienced a down time for all the accounts that I signed up. But I do know that ocassionally their servers go down since they post information about it on their forums. It's nothing serious. Most of the times they only had to reboot and the down time was 2 minutes. The worst episode that I read about was when one server's primary HD failed and had to be replaced. No data was lost since they do have a back-up, and it was up and running.

Bottomline
I am very satisfied with TCH's service. I highly recommend it to anyone as I recommend GoDaddy's domain registration. The customer is their number one priority. If you change your mind, they will completely refund your money (provided that you cancel within the 1st 30 days).

Originally posted by LiVeWiRe ...james8547...has a link to their site in his sig...not sure if he is affiliated with them or not?-LW

I am not affiliated with them. They didn't pay me to write this nor to put their link in my sig. They do not have a referral program that I know off. I wished they do however. I have them at my sig since I am confident that anyone who values their money would be happy with TCH.

[LiVeWiRe]

Thanks a ton james8547!

I appreciate you posting about this and sharing your experience with this company. With so many out there these days, it's hard to choose...

Thanks again,
-LW

[TwoRails]

I know zero about setting up a Web page.... Is page design part of their package or an additional fee? (I gave a quick look but didn't find anything on it...)

[james8547]

TwoRails,
They offer web design services but it's quite expensive http://www.totalchoicehosting.com/we...ng-design.html

I am quite sure you can find a more affordable web design service out there. I think some people in their forums are web designers who charge less than TCH.

LW,
I know how it feels. I was also hesitant about switching to TCH, specially that I was switching my company's website. But I made the right move.

[TwoRails]

Thanks, james8547

[Byte 2.0]

I am going to setup a domain on TCH and give them a try.

[LiVeWiRe]

james8547,

Can you use Outlook with the email from TotalChoice? I saw some info about Outlook Express but didn't see anything regarding Outlook.

If so, then it looks like that'll be 2 customers you've sent their way!

Thanks again for all the info!

-LW

[james8547]

Originally posted by LiVeWiRe james8547, Can you use Outlook with the email from TotalChoice? I saw some info about Outlook Express but didn't see anything regarding Outlook. If so, then it looks like that'll be 2 customers you've sent their way! Thanks again for all the info! -LW

Yes, you can use Outlook with TCH mail. I personally use Outlook 2002 SP3. You can ask the TCH crew on how to setup Outlook properly. I think they already made a tutorial-video on how to do this.

Sorry for the delay. I don't get to visit PCMech that often now.