I’ve used over a dozen different web hosting companies over the years, and the company that I recommend now is called 1and1. My reasons for this recommendation are:
- Reliable uptime for web hosting accounts
- Value pricing
- Helpful tech support 24/7, in English
- Experience, they host over 1,000,000 web sites
- Scalability, they serve one person companies up to large corporations
Having said that, I felt some panic today when I tried to login at www.1and1.com and was greeted with this screen of death:
This is the kind of screen that you would see if their web host was having issues, or worse, they were hacked.
A quick phone call to tech support provided me with the login address: my.1and1.com
Yes, I can login, however why is the main web site at www.1and1.com down this afternoon?
All of the web sites that I have hosted at 1and1 are all up and running without issue.
When I filled out a Support request on their web site it was about 10 minutes later that I got a reply e-mail asking me, “Which browser are you using?” I replied that it was Google Chrome on a Mac. Next, I tried out four other browsers and they all worked OK (Firefox on Mac, Safari on Mac, Â IE on Windows, Firefox on Windows).
Hmm, sounds like a browser issue and not a web hosting issue. I then went into the settings on Google Chrome on my Mac and cleared the cache, sure enough I can now browse 1and1 OK, it was a browser bug and not a 1and1 issue. You see, even an expert like me can mis-diagnose a tech issue.
Very interesting. I’ve been with 1and1 for some time, but my service seems to be not reliable at all. Customer service is also so-so.