My websites were killed by Lunarpages, and all data were lost. (The websites now are still down!) I paid $99 per month for the dedicated server, but now all gone. And since I trusted them before, and did not make backup, now the only way is to sit my websites on old data. I have been experiencing really really really tough time due to the slow loading problem, and now the websites are killed. Please help suggest a dedicated server that is reliable. I really appreciate your kind help!
Dedicated now, The planet (softlayer), Singlehop provides the best dedicated servers in the world. Hostgator servers are from Softlayer.
And even more important than finding a reliable server, I sincerely hope you learned your lesson with backups, and why you need to have backups of your server at all times.
Sad to hear your experience with them. However what sorts of site you are running? And how much traffic per hour you have?
Not sure if you are serious but I'd never host my sites on these companies while domain registration is their main business.
A solid backup plan is a must for your sites or server. A good hosting company will offer this off your server in a safe location. But in your current situation it doesn't sound like that would help you now. Also a good thing to keep a backup yourself. What kind of server specs are you looking for? A managed server or unmanaged? You had a run of bad luck with current host. Best of Luck with your new host and I hope you find one that takes care of you and your files. Lots of reviews and peoples opinion out there to read about hosts. Might also try a company that has been around for awhile and has a good history. Another quick test is to contact the host via their website, ask for a quote or ask a few questions,etc, this allows you to judge their response time and knowledge level of the answers.
I don't disagree, but wanted to add, that having a off-site backup (or any backup) from your host absolutely does not mean you shouldn't have your own regular backups. Things happen to the host's backups too. If the data is important, you need multiple layers of redundancy.
If you're not interested in using Wordpress for creating your website, try Google AppEngine. I use it for one of my websites and it performed great so far. No downtime and no costs.
I personally used dreamhost, linode, knownhost, rackspace cloud and hawkhost. They are all good enough to have kept me for over a year. I've been with some of them for over 3 years. For budget hosting that's still reliable, go with dreamhost. For unmanaged hosting at its best, go with linode. For peace of heart, go with knownhost and rackspace cloud. For real budget hosting, go with hawkhost. Search and find more hosting reviews at here: http://www.hostjury.com/ http://www.hostingkids.com/
There are a lot of web applications which will allow you to get your web site working within minutes. But if you are afraid of hacks better code or create your web site without using web applications. That is the best way and safe for you.