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The Truth About Ace Net Web Hosting
AceNet Hosting Facts, Host Profile & Hosting
Reviews
By Mark Shroyer
We researched over 200 web hosts and narrowed it down to
the best Web hosts called the "Web Host 'Straight A'
HOT List." To qualify for this list we required each
web host have an A rating with the Better Business Bureau
(BBB) at the time of our review. BBB ratings indicate how
well companies have satisfied their customers and resolved
complaints. The BBB rated Ace Net
with an A+.
But we did even further research.
Next, we emailed Ace Net twice with 40+ tough questions
about their shared Web hosting. We wanted to check out their
response time and the depth of their answers. Both times
were during "off" hours. (i.e., First set of questions
were emailed on a week night somewhere between 7 PM to midnight.
The other set were emailed on a weekend.)
It took Ace Net 48 minutes to answer our first set of questions
and 26 minutes to answer our second set. 24 hours or less
for a response is considered quick by industry standards.
AceNet responded within the hour on both occasions and supplied
us with the fullest detailed answers. Frankly, they were
the fastest and most impressive on our entire list of hosts.
Here are the answers to our questions straight from Ace
Net themselves:
- Question: How long have you been in business?
Answer: We've been
in business since 2003.
- Question: What are all the different ways I
can contact technical support?
Answer: We currently
only offer Technical Support by the Help Desk. While this
may seem like an inconvenience to someone who hasn't used
our support before, it's also what allows us to make an
initial response to all new tickets within 7 minutes time
on average. Being tied up on the phone or going through
disorganized emails wouldn't allow us to be this efficient
and accurate with our award winning support as we are
right now.
- Question: Do you offer a simple user-friendly
Web site builder for beginners to make creating web pages
quicker and easier? (i.e., WYSIWYG online HTML Editor
or something similar?)
Answer: Yes we do
offer site studio which is available for an extra $2/mo
this is a WYSIWYG online HTML Editor with some simple
templates that make it easy to create a website.
- Question: On average how long should I expect
to wait before I get a reply back from technical support
on an urgent high priority request?
Answer: All priority
requests normally will receive an initial response within
7 minutes. Even if we are tied up with other tickets at
that very moment. There is no need to set a priority as
all tickets are treated as emergencies in our view.
- Question: Will I share an IP number or will I
have my own?
Answer: Both. Your
account will reside on a shared server which contains
a shared IP address. However, Now that our new Enterprise
2.0 plans come with their own dedicated IP address so
you'll have that as well. Your website will resolve to
your dedicated IP address and so will your email. However,
Should you wish to use the servers shared IP address for
any reason, you are able to do so.
- Question: How many sites are currently running
on the server I would be on and how many sites do you
normally put on one shared server?
Answer: About 970
accounts would reside on the server. The servers Resources
and CPU usage can be monitored by cPanel as it's a plug-in
graph we've put there to allow clients to see the servers
usage. Our servers are monitored 24/7 and if any account
becomes rogue or compromised for any reason and attempts
to chew up large amounts of CPU or Memory, it's taken
care of very swiftly.
We do not stop loading accounts on a server just because
of how many exist, the servers are regularly monitored
for actual usage. If you have 100 websites just using
static content and begin loading a new server, that is
a large waste of server hardware and resources since 100
static websites would use hardly any of the servers resources.
When we stop loading a shared server is a formula of how
many websites are using what amount and percentage of
the servers resources on a daily basis, and how much growth
within those own sites we expect to see in the near future.
This gives a little bit of room for the current accounts
on that server to add more domains and websites in the
future without the worry of the servers CPU or Memory
being taxed.
- Question: How do you decide what constitutes
a full server?
Answer: Please see
above explanation in question 5. A combination of how
many sites are using what percentage of server resources
on a daily average along with some room for growth.
- Question: Will I be contacted in advance about
routine maintenance?
Answer: Yes, anytime
a MYSQL or PHP upgrade needs to take place, you'll be
notified weeks in advance to make proper changes in case
your scripts would be effected by such an upgrade. The
only thing we do not contact shared clients about are
kernel updates which require a server reboot. This is
simply because of how frequent kernel updates can be sometimes.
The kernel updates are done in the morning during off
peak hours and 99% of the clients do not even know it
took place. The reboot usually takes about 2-4 minutes
of downtime to come back up with the new kernel applied.
- Question: What is your bandwidth, transfer,
file or hit limit?
Answer: No bandwidth
limits on Enterprise 2.0 accounts. Enterprise 2.0 is the
only shared plan we are offering currently. The file limit
per directory is set at 25k I believe. It could be set
larger but we've yet to find someone who has a valid purpose
in doing this yet. If it was needed, we could probably
expand this number to accommodate.
- Question: Can I have telnet access?
Answer: There is no
TELNET access to our servers but SSH/JailShell (limited)
access can be applied on a per account basis per request.
This would allow you to do exactly the same things TELNET
would be able to provide for you.
- Question: Is a CGI directory included?
Answer: Yes, but using
the cgi-bin/ is not required to run CGI scripts. You can
run them anywhere within the /public_html of the account.
- Question: Can I run CGI scripts outside of the
CGI directory?
Answer: Yes.
- Question: Is there a limit to how many scripts
I can install?
Answer: No limits
to how many scripts you run. As long as your scripts did
not consume excess amounts of CPU. This would mean using
20% or more of the 8 total CPU's built within the server.
If this were to happen it would mean you have a rogue
script looping or you are getting millions of hits and
have out grown the confines of what shared hosting can
offer. Regardless, if you hit this limit or not we get
daily reports every night and notify any user who might
have exceeded 20% of the shared servers CPU. They're given
a chance to correct the script problem and speak to the
script developers or upgrade to a VDS/Dedicated Server.
Clients are not just thrown off unless it risks crashing
the server. 90% of the clients we contact about this normally
resolve the problem by disabling a poorly coded plug-in
for example or asking the script developers for assistance
in fixing what ever part of their scripts are broken or
misconfiguration.
- Question: Do you provide full shell access?
Answer: No, only jail
shell (limited) access. Full/root access would fall under
what is offered with a dedicated or vps server.
- Question: What version of Perl do you use? Does
it contain a full set of modules?
Answer: root@north
[/home]# perl -v
As of Jan. 27, 20011 it is perl, v5.8.8 built for x86_64-linux-thread-multi
Every module that you probably need is on the server.
If there are specific modules you would need, please
let me know and I'll be happy to look them up for you.
It's very rare that server not have the perl modules
required for a shared client. In the cases that we don't,
we can normally schedule upgrade maintenance and load
it on if it's something that wouldn't effect other clients.
- Question: Do you offer a Web statistics package?
Answer: Awstats, yes.
This must be enabled in your cPanel and stats are produced
in a 24 hour period.
- Question: Will I have access to the raw statistical
log files?
Answer: RAW Apache
Access logs for your account only are provided in cPanel.
- Question: Does the space used by my logs count
against my allotted disk space?
Answer: The RAW access
logs are just snap shots or portions of the Apache domlogs.
These snapshots of the domlogs that are downloadable in
cPanel are part of your disk usage since that is where
the files are stored, within your account.
- Question: How much space am I alotted for databases
such as MySQL?
Answer: As much as
you need granted that your sites fit within the normal
confines of shared hosting.
- Question: Do you offer Frontpage extensions?
Answer: Yes
- Question: Do you offer Secure Socket Layer?
Answer: A shared SSL
is setup on the server for any client to use with their
scripts. Should you need your own private SSL for your
domain, you may purchase that with us or a third party
and use it.
- Question: How many email accounts, forwards,
and email aliases can I have?
Answer: As many as
you need. These kinds of things take up little space and
it's very hard to cause any sort of disruption with a
large amount of forwarders. This is why we're not really
interested in setting a cap for this. We are more interested
in accommodating clients instead of limiting them to shell
out more money. Things can always be done in excess as
previously explained but I've yet to find a client cause
a problem on a server by using a large amount of email
accounts or forwarders working here almost 3 years.
- Question: Is sending to opt-in email lists allowed?
(i.e., e-newsletters, autoresponders, etc.)
Answer: Newsletters,
bulk emailing, auto-responders, are all allowed. However,
There is a limit of 600 emails for outbound email per
hour. This limit is to protect the servers IP reputation
and to prevent a crash for a server overload. Without
this limit, an account could become compromised if another
client neglected to keep their scripts updated for example.
If the hacker wanted to blast out millions of emails in
a short period, it would likely cause a server crash.
It would along with it cause blacklisting problems and
issues. The 600 emails per limit prevents something like
this from happening. The limit is only on outbound emails
only. PHP List can be installed through Fantastico for
free if you need to send bulk email. It's capable of email
throttling where it will send out 500 emails in a hour,
pause, wait for the hour to expire, and continue down
the email list. This prevents your account from exceeding
600 emails per hour when sending mass email.
- Question: How many emails can I send out per
hour and day?
Answer: We have a
600 emails per hour (14,400 per day) limitation on all
of our shared servers. No limit on incoming mail.
- Question: Is your package upgradable and what
should I expect if I ever need to upgrade to a larger
package?
Answer: There are
no larger or smaller packages currently. If you wanted
to upgrade, it would be to a VPS or Dedicated Server.
In which, we would help you with the migration so there
is no downtime.
- Question: Do you have a money-back guarantee?
Answer: If you are
not completely satisfied for any reason within the first
30 days of purchasing a hosting or reseller plan, you
will be given a full refund of the fees paid in advance
upon plan cancellation. The 30-Day Money Back Guarantee
is only available to new customers and cannot be invoked
by anyone who has ever previously been a customer of Acenet
or has been a customer of Acenet for over 30 days. The
following services are not covered by the 30-Day Money
Back Guarantee and are non-refundable for any reason:
additional items and services; domain name registration;
dedicated servers; virtual dedicated servers; plan renewals;
plan upgrades; plan term extensions; SSL certificates;
and overage fees. To invoke the 30-Day Money Back Guarantee,
you must cancel your plan exactly as outlined in the "Termination
by Customer" section of the agreement within 30 days of
purchase. THERE ARE ABSOLUTELY NO REFUNDS OFFERED, PROMISED
OR AVAILABLE AFTER 30 DAYS OF PURCHASE.
- Question: What are your billing and cancellation
policies?
Answer: All domain
registrations and hosting plans will auto-renew until
canceled. If you wish to cancel a package, please login
to your billing account and make the cancel request on
any domain registration or hosting packages that are setup
in your billing account before the renew dates.
- Question: What is your acceptable usage policy
in a nutshell?
Answer: You are basically
given unlimited or a large amount of resources to do the
things you need, granted that your website or account
do not push the limits of a shared web hosting environment.
(Note: See the policy at their web site for full
details.)
- Question: Are there any penalties or fees for
exceeding basic allocations and what should I expect if
it accidentally happens? (i.e., Going over my bandwidth,
etc.?)
Answer: I have yet
to find a shared account exceed what Enterprise 2.0 can
offer in regards to bandwidth or disk space unless the
account is misused. I.E. being used to store warez, personal
back up's of their computers programs or personal data.
To answer your question, we would not penalize you if
it did happen. We would notify you by email if anything
became a problem and why. You would then be given ample
time to make the corrections or reply back to us stating
why you would disagree.
- Question: Can I set up a free trial period?
Answer: Free trials
are not offered as we have a 30-Day Money Back Guarantee
policy in our terms of service.
- Question: How soon can I expect to obtain access
to my Web site after I submit my order?
Answer: Assuming that
your order passes all fraud checks, within 5 minutes.
Should it not pass, it will just need to be manually reviewed
by Sales & Billing during their normal business hours.
09:00am - 05:00pm EST.
- Question: Do you impose file size upload limits
and, if so, what are they?
Answer: File update
limits, this depends on the method of upload. FTP has
no limits, however php you're bound by the servers php.ini
which is around 32Mg this can be increased per account.
- Question: Do you impose any limits to how many
files can be stored in a single sub-directory and, if
so, what are they?
Answer: There is no
limits however I've seen some issues when files size reaches
about 3000+ files. Some files were not able to be viewed
via FTP however this was quickly corrected.
- Question: Do you impose a size-load limit that
a directory can have and, if so, what is it? (i.e., 100
MB worth of files per directory)
Answer: No limits
- Question: Do you have any CPU, RAM, or Inode
limits that I need to know about and stay under and, if
so, what are they?
Answer: Yes we do,
it all depends on the server you're placed on, we like
for our clients to stay under 20% of total CPU, .4% mysql
usage, and around 5% RAM.
- Question: Is there a limit to how many simultaneous
HTTP connections there can be and, if so, what are they?
Answer: This is a
global setting and all users contribute to it.
- Question: Is there a limit to how many simultaneous
PHP connections there can be and, if so, what are they?
Answer: No limit.
- Question: Is there a limit to how many simultaneous
database connections there can be (i.e., MySQL, etc.)
and, if so, what are they?
Answer: There is no
limit however you'll want to be sure not to go over the
resource limit for mysql.
- Question: Is there a limit to how many simultaneous
FTP connections there can be and, if so, what are they?
Answer: Each server
is different since the hardware is different however around
10
- Question: Do you offer IMAP and, if so, is there
any limits to how many IMAP connections I can have and
what are they?
Answer: Each server
is different since the hardware is different however around
10
- Question: What should I typically expect to happen
if any of the limits above accidentally went over their
limit? (i.e., Would my visitors see a message saying "account
temporarily suspended" or what should I expect? Please
elaborate.)
Answer: It depends
on the limit, we'll first contact you unless it is effecting
other clients. We'll ask you to either look into why this
is happening and resolve it or upgrade. IF you're effecting
the overall server performance and causing slow downs
the account or script will be disabled. If the account
is disabled you may see a suspended page.
- Question: Do you offer ffmpeg for video conversion
and video sharing? If so, are there any limitations and
what are they?
Answer: ffmpeg is
not available on our shared servers, you would need either
a VPS or Full dedicated server.
- Question: Do you host adult content or web sites?
Answer: No, as described
in our terms of service we do not allow adult content
- Question: How can I ensure your network and my
(shared) IP address you give me won't get blocked or blacklisted
as spam by ISP companies when I send and receive emails
through your server?
Answer: Our Enterprise
accounts come with dedicated IP addresses so you are the
only one on that dedicated IP. The only person that can
get your IP blacklisted would be you.
- Question: Do you automatically make back up copies
of all my files and, if so, how often, and is there any
limits?
Answer: We do offer
backups, however they are not archival so you can get
a backup from within 48-72 hours.
- Question: What is the typical procedure you
recommend that I take (other than companies like PayPal)
if I want to accept credit cards from my web site, and
what do I need to know to make it happen and how much
extra will it all cost?
Answer: You'll need
a merchant account with someone like Authorize.net we
do supply you with the application and I belive it's based
on your credit. (you would need to speak with sales)
- Question: How long will you give me to retrieve
all my files if, for any reason, either one of us decides
to terminate our service with each other?
Answer: You'll have
until your renewal date to retrieve files. If you pay
for 1 month and terminate it on the 15th day you'll still
have 15 days to get your content.
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