First let me say GoDaddy has been excellent! I have been with GoDaddy on shared hosting and VPS for many years. I am moving because they are stuck on Windows 2008R2 VPS and no plans to launch VPS on Windows 2012. I asked many times and I get the same answer "I do not know if or when we will offer Windows 2012 on VPS" ....
oh boy,,, why did Bob Parsons sell GoDaddy?
The Search Begins - Two Other Host Providers Before Webline
HOST 1: I signed up with another host provider for Windows 2012. Right out of the gate they built the VM incorrectly. I opened a ticket stating there were missing components "Oh you want that, well we will rebuild it but next time you will pay." RED FLAG. - They did not ask what I wanted the VM to be used for, and did not read my notes in their own order form about using it to host websites with .NET and SQL Server! I canceled immediately.
HOST 2: I went back to another company I had some good experience with in the past on shared hosting, so I thought I would try them for VPS. I ignored the few bad reviews for VPS hosting on this company, and now looking back I should have listened.
I signed up, and moved all my sites. Setting up SQL Server, batch jobs and... on and on. About 15 hours to get it all setup. Then I was not able to RDP to the VM. When I did it threw some error and knocked me out of the VM. I opened tickets with the host, got on the chat "We will take a look and talk to an engineer."
Let me add this, my SQL Database was getting hit by a China hacker trying to hack it using an SA account. This hacker had hundreds of connections opens and Host #2 did nothing. I had to create firewall rules to block China and and stop SQL Server from being exposed outside of the VPS.
That goodness for NirSoft CPORTS application that showed me all these connections.
I thought ok they are working on getting me access using RPD again. Hours go by, no response. I reply to the ticket, I get on the chat, hours go by nothing. The next day I open another chat, reply to the ticket, no response. I email their QA department "We closed your ticket as a duplicate" I get back on the chat and ask who in charge can I email or call? They tell me "Open a ticket with QA" I said I did and your QA team closed the ticket saying it was a duplicate ticket! End of the second day I had enough and started moving all my sites back to GoDaddy and closed the hosting account and got a refund.
Webine Services
HOST 3 - Webline Services! I went on the hunt again and found
Webline Services after reading a review on Webhosting Talk and on
HostSearch. The reviews were very good, I thought too good, are these fake? I soon found out the great reviews are real. I opened a chat with Webline and spoke to a tech named James. This was late at night. He was super helpful and answered all my questions.
I ordered a one month account to start and they had the server up in less than an hour. I was back online and James opened a chat to ask how it was going. I thought "wow really, this level of support, is this for real?"
I had a few questions and James worked with me in the chat session and helped me out quickly. Later I had a few more questions and opened some support tickets. Webline support responded quickly and it did not matter if it was day, night, early morning, or on the weekend. I now have all my sites at Webline and will be shutting down my GoDaddy VPS.
I am sharing this information because I lost so much time hunting around and setting up a VPS with incompetent host providers I felt the need to let more folks know about
Webline. They have a fantastic product offering for web hosting and other purposes. I did not list the names of HOST1 and HOST2 in this post but I have placed negative reviews about those companies on HostSearch.