after 12 years where we are usually with 2 hosts or more, i’ve discovered some things that make a good host to me:
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fast support. it amazes me but i read on other boards periodically about hosts who don’t get back to people for a day or more. i expect to hear back from a host in minutes - and not many of them. our second host used to take around a week to add a domain to our servers. i was shocked when i discovered that it took them like 5 minutes and they just put it off.
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knowledgeable support. over the years, i’ve had some server support guys who were nice and tried very hard, but they just didn’t know things. as a result, we once had a server that filled with logs - GIGS and GIGS of logs. we also ended up with a windows server from a host that had never worked with unix. at the time, i didn’t even know to ask. it was horrible!
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communication. problems happen. i realize some problems take time to deal with. just let me know what is wrong and how long it will take. as long as it’s realistic, i’ll wait patiently. if a host is still figuring things out, let me know that. the best hosts i’ve worked with always kept me in the loop.
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knowledgeable sales reps. before anything else, you need a rep who can make you a deal based on your needs and who knows what’s going on with the company. the owner of our first hosting company told me that he had a package would work for even large porn sites - this was in early 1996. as soon as learned to do link trades, we maxed his entire line - our small site used more bandwidth than his entire company LOL
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fast connection. it probably goes without saying that we all want our sites to be fast, but years ago i had 2 hosts who turned out to have lied to customers. both charged us for dedicated lines that we weren’t on, and when those lines filled up, our sites barely crawled. another memorable slow host many years ago was so notorious for that at the time that mainstream and porn sites would put little icons on their site with the host name with a red circle around it and a red line through it - i kid you not.
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control. i know for some people this isn’t a must or even a plus. for me, i often don’t want maximum control over my sites. i don’t need or want root access as a rule, and i don’t do ssh access. back in the day, i did telnet in a few times, and i waited to crash the server every time, although i never did. but if i want a direct admin panel or a company that’s very well known to me needs access to something, it should be my call. i’m a pretty responsible hosting client who has not once in 12 years and many hosts ever caused a problem this way, so i believe i should have any access to my server that i might need.
so… what do you think makes a good host, and why?
Re: what makes a good host?
Support definitly extremly important. But also that there is a feeling of trust and knowing that the company you host with will do anything it takes to make sure your site will be up.
Knowledge, that they know exactly what they are doing. It always shows when someone knows what they are talking about or not. I would never accept some “support desk” with people who have no idea about advanced server issues. Servers and hosting should be supported by Programmers and proper engineers.
Backbone / bandwidth as well as good quality servers.
For me its always been about quality rather than price. Without a good hosting company I would not have been successfull, its such an important part of what I do that its one thing I’m happy to pay a high price for.
Re: what makes a good host?
while i wouldn’t argue with price, i feel fortunate that my current host is very reasonably priced while taking care of us and our server so well 
Re: what makes a good host?
“24 hour” accessible easy support & fast response and obviously knowledge. It amazes me what I do ask and they know.
It amazes me how many people seem to have hosts that donot offer 24 hour support or they wait hours for a reply.
Re: what makes a good host?
Support is top of my list. There is nothing worse than waiting 24 hours for a reply. And also the staff need to be able to solve the problem effectively. Believe it or not, one of the reasons I cancelled a hosting package recently after six months was because a mailform that I have on all my sites mysteriously wouldn’t work on their server. They didn’t know what the problem was and basically expected me to sort it out. So I had a load of trouble trying to find another mailform that I liked. I spent several hours looking and never did find one. Anyway there would be all that work changing the form and script on half a dozen sites. In the end it was easier to move those very small sites to one of my other servers where the form works and cancel the troublesome server (which had a weird control panel anyway).
As for speed, I’m happy so long as pages appear immediately and load fairly fast. However I have sometimes traded a little speed when it is a company I like. By which I mean, as my traffic is mainly American with some European, the ideal location for a host is the East coast of America. However sometimes I have hosted in California which means slightly slower speed for Europe.
Control: I don’t need root access but I like to be in control of most things on a virtual server. That’s just the way I am: an independent person who doesn’t like to have to rely on someone else. I can’t imagine having to email support when I want to install a database or add a domain.
Prices: a major pet hate of mine is hosts that offer a price and then don’t tell you it is for 12 months prepayment until you have got to the sign up form. I find that sneaky and dishonest and it is no way to start off with a new customer. I will never pay 12 months up front. I am a loyal customer and will be with a host for a long time if the service is good.
Packages: it’s amazing how many packages haven’t kept up with what we need these days. 250Mb webspace? Er, helloooo? Haven’t you heard that everyone is doing video now and that a 500Gb drive only costs 70 Pounds? Other hosts are offering gigabytes of storage for just a few dollars. Or what about hosting accounts that only include two MSQL databases in this age of Wordpress? So, sadly, this month I say goodbye to one account at another host that I have been with for about seven years. In that time there has been no increase in storage space for the price, which makes it impossible to work with anymore.
Re: what makes a good host?
For me, it probably goes roughly in this order
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Reliable, stable network with plenty of overhead in bandwidth. Like Patti, I’ve had servers where I was promised x amount of bandwidth or transit only to find it wasn’t really there when I actually needed to use it. Another data center had repeated outages and was completely nonresponsive when I asked for an explanation. I can forgive almost anything, but don’t lie to me or feed me BS.
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Fast, ACCURATE support. Respond to my ticket quickly, and do so meaningfully. A tech that’s incompetent is sometimes worse than no response at all, and National Net is so far the only ISP I’ve been with (out of a dozen) where I have yet to find a single tech that wasn’t knowledgeable, helpful, and willing to do what it takes to solve my problem. Contrast that to another large ISP where I had yet to find a single tech that WAS knowledgeable or competent. (Helpful-but-incompetent, which was the norm there, is not an adequate substitute.)
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Honesty. Charge me a fair price for what I’m getting. Bandwidth, infrastructure, and the staff to maintain it is expensive, so I expect to pay decent money for that. But don’t insult my intelligence by gouging me $50 a month for an extra hard drive that I can buy at Fry’s for $60 when I’m already paying good money for the server and bandwidth. Give me what you say you’re going to give me (hardware and bandwidth.)
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Recognize my needs and work with me in the spirit of cooperation and mutual success. I will try to treat you fairly if you do the same in return. If I’m asking for something that’s out of line, tell me rather than be disgruntled about it, and expect me to do the same.
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SOLVE MY PROBLEMS. Don’t tell me it’s my problem. Don’t tell me you don’t know how to fix it. (If you really don’t have anyone who does know, refer me to someone you know and trust that I can hire to fix the problem.) If my request is out of line for what our arrangement is, I’ll expect to pay for it, but if it’s a simple little thing that takes 3 minutes and I’m in a bind, I don’t expect to be told “We don’t provide those services unless you sign up for $100/hour service in advance, and sales handles that.” Keep my server up-to-date on security patches and vulnerability scans.
Honestly, I continue to be so blown away by NatNet that I can’t imagine another ISP doing a better job, and pretty much all of the above are part of what they provide. But I’m sure there are ones out there who are striving for the same level of excellence. At some point, I may try another one, just to have more redundancy, but for now, we’re pretty happy with the two ISPs we have.