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Hosting Services
The are many hosting service providers to choose from.  4Me2Win recommends a couple of organizations to serve as your hosting service provider.  One of these preferences is Prohosting.com.  The chart below represents a comparison of hosting service providers.  The chart was taken from www.prohosting.com on May 14, 2002.  It is not meant to represent a current comparison of what is offered from potential service providers but has been provided as a starting point and as general reference information.

Yahoo's Geocities (www.geocities.com) offers a lower cost option that is almost half the cost of Prohosting's service.  However, you sometimes get less with the lower price (speed, functionality, and support can vary) and you should discuss the options with your webmaster before making a decision.

If you choose to use either Prohosting or Geocities, we will arrange hosting services with them for you, and we will not charge you for this setup.  You will only be responsible for providing your billing information.  If you use another hosting service, an hourly rate for this assistance will apply.  If you choose to arrange your own hosting service, we will need your account ID, password, and FTP details in order to service your account.


(Note: The following comparison was made in 2003.) Capital Building
ProHosting Corporation
AT&T Small Business Hosting
Service
Central
ConcentricHost
XO Communications
 IBM Global Small Business Interland
 Verio
 Web2010

Monthly cost: basic shared plan

 $17.95 $25.00 $19.99 $19.95 $24.95 $19.95 $24.95 $19.99
Provides Free Web Hosting solutions Yes No No No No No No
 No
Banner Exchange

Yes

 No
 Yes No
 ... No
 No
 No
Setup Fee $0.00 $50.00 $0.00 $50.00
 ... $40.00
 $50.00
 $39.00

Bandwidth Allocation

 15 2 0.5 5 ... 10 3 5

Drive Space

 200 Megs 40 Megs 40 Megs 100 Megs ... 150 Megs 40 Megs 100 Megs
Web site-hosting facilities
 San Jose, CA; Provo

Middletown, VA; New York; Phoenix; San Diego; Birmingham, U.K.

 Seattle
 Chicago; Irvine, CA; San Jose, CA; Washington, DC; Amsterdam; London
 Schaumburg, IL (shared); >100 worldwide
 Atlanta
 Alexandria, VA; Chicago; Dallas; Detroit; Houston; Los Angeles; San Francisco; San Jose, CA
 Atlanta; Herndon, VA; Orlando, FL; San Jose, CA
Shared servers in a high-reliability cluster
 Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes No
Server Backup Daily Daily None Daily Daily Daily Daily Weekly
Restore Capability Yes No No Yes Yes Yes Yes No
Reseller Programs Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Windows 2000 plans No No No No No Yes Yes Yes (dedicated server only)
Unix-based shared hosting
 Apache
 Apache
 None Solaris AIX Red Hat Linux 6.1
 BSD, BSDi, FreeBSD, Linux
 Apache Stronghold 1.3.6 (Web server), BSDi 4.01 (OS)
Supports user-provided CGI/ASP scripts**
Yes Yes No Yes No Yes Yes Yes
Approval for personal ASP/CGI scripts**
Yes: CGI No N/A No N/A No No No
ASP or CGI scripts provided**
 Yes: CGI
              
Counters/Form mail
 Yes Yes
 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Guest Book/Search Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Languages accepted
 All Perl only None All None All All All
Multimedia content types supported
 RealMedia RealMedia None Flash, Java, Windows Media Player None RealMedia, Windows Media Player* RealMedia, Windows Media Player RealMedia (optional)
Supports FrontPage 97/98/2000
 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes
Databases supported
 MySQL with Unix Flat-file database None Access, MS SQL None Access, MySQL, SQL Server Access, FoxPro, or SQL Server with WinNT; MS SQL or MySQL with Unix Access or SQL Server with Win NT; MySQL with Unix
ODBC DSNs self-management
No No No Yes No Yes Yes No
POP e-mail accounts available
 Yes Yes No Yes No Yes Yes Yes
Basic Plan Accounts Unlimited 10 N/A 20 N/A Unlimited 10 Unlimited
Monthly cost for extra accounts
 N/A $2.50 each N/A $2 each N/A N/A $1 each N/A
Web-based interface for e-mail account access
Yes Yes N/A Yes N/A Yes Yes (for some plans) Yes
SMTP or send mail capabilities
Yes No N/A Yes N/A Yes Yes Yes
Number of e-mail forwarding accounts
 Unlimited 1 per account N/A 1 per account N/A Unlimited 10 and up Unlimited
E-mail account self-management
 Yes Yes N/A Yes N/A Yes Yes Yes
Limitable users' mailbox size
 No No N/A Yes N/A Yes Yes Yes
Auto-responders Unlimited Yes N/A Yes N/A Yes Yes Yes
List management system
 Yes Yes Yes No No Yes Yes Yes (dedicated server only)
Central Web-based administration page
 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Telnet site administration
 No No No Yes No Yes(Unix Accounts) Yes Yes
FTP access
 Yes No No Yes No Yes Yes Yes
ANonymous FTP
Yes No No No No Yes Yes Yes (on request)
Password-protect directories
 Yes Yes No Yes No Yes Yes Yes
Create custom error messages
Yes Yes No Yes No Yes Yes Yes
FTP generates separate log files
 Yes No No Yes No No Yes Yes
Traffic reporting system
Yes No Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes
Raw log file access
 Yes Yes No Yes(analog only) No Yes Yes Yes
Reliability records
 No Yes No Yes No Yes (on request) Yes Yes
Claimed uptime percentage
 99.9% 99.0% No 100.0% No 99.9% 99.0% 99.0%
Secure (SSL) pages
 Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes
E-commerce
Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Credit card authorization plan
 Optional Optional Optional Optional Yes* Yes Yes Yes
Toll-free technical support No 801-356-6040 888-907-9283 None 800-424-0532 888-426-0336 800-214-1460 888-438-8374 888-932-2010
Hours (eastern time)
 24 hours, 7 days
 24 hours, 7 days N/A
 24 hours, 7 days
 9:00-8:00 M-F
 24 hours, 7 days 24 hours, 7 days 24 hours, 7 days
Response time for online support
 24 hours 24-48 hours 72 hours 24-48 hours N/A 24-48 hours 24 hours 24 hours
* Except on the cheapest plan.
** ProHosting does not offer ASP support.
N/A--Not applicable: The service does Not support this feature.		 Sources: PC Magazing Vol. 19, No. 19
ProHosting's Inquery of Competitors
ProHosting's own information
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