The Truth About Arvixe Hosting

Arvixe Hosting Facts, Host Profile & Hosting Reviews

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Facts - Arvixe Web Hosting

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 Arvixe Hosting with an A.

But we did even further research.

Next, we emailed Arvixe 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 Arvixe 11 hours and 24 minutes to answer our first set of questions and 22 hours and 13 minutes to answer our second set. 24 hours or less for a response is considered quick by industry standards. Arvixe made the cut.

Here are the answers to our questions straight from Arvixe Hosting themselves:

1. Question: How long have you been in business?
   
   Answer: Since 2003
   
   
2. Question: What are all the different ways I can contact technical support? (i.e., Email? Support ticket? Help desk? Chat? Phone?)
   
   Answer: Toll-Free Phone, Chat, Helpdesk/Email
   
   
3. 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: For Linux accounts we have RVSiteBuilder. For ASP accounts there is no builder.
   
   
4. 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: We try to answer all tickets in under 24 hours, for immediate support contact us by telephone or chat.
   
   
5. Question: Will I share an IP number or will I have my own?
   
   Answer: Shared hosting accounts (Personal, Business, Reseller) have a shared IP address unless you pay for a dedicated IP address ($2/month)
   
   
6. Question: How many sites are currently running on the server I would be on? How many sites do you normally put on one shared server? How do you decide what constitutes a full server?
   
   Answer: Our PersonalClass servers are capped around 200 accounts and our BusinessClass servers are capped at around 50 accounts. The system will automatically setup you on a server, until then I wouldn't know which server you are on or many other users are on it.
   
   
7. Question: Will I be contacted in advance about routine maintenance?
   
   Answer: Yes you will be alerted of any planned outages. If there is an extended outage where we cannot stand by our 99.9% uptime gurantee we will automatically credit your account.
   
   
8. Question: What is your bandwidth, transfer, file or hit limit?
   
   Answer: PersonalClass accounts are limited to 20 simultaneous connections, BusinessClass accounts We offer unlimited bandwith/transfer, and file limit.
   
   
9. Question: Can I have telnet access?
   
   Answer: No
   
   
10. Question: Is a CGI directory included?
    
    Answer: Yes
    
    
11. Question: Can I run CGI scripts outside of the CGI directory?
    
    Answer: No
    
    
12. Question: Is there a limit to how many scripts I can install?
    
    Answer: No, you are only limited by your server resource usage and your connection limit. If we are alerted that your account is abusing the server resources we will request that you disable the offending scripts or upgrade your account.
    
    
13. Question: Do you provide full shell access?
    
    Answer: Yes, you can request SSH access but root access is only given on private (VPS and Dedicated) servers.
    
    
14. Question: What version of Perl do you use? Does it contain a full set of modules?
    
    Answer: v5.8.8 and any of our linux servers should
    
    
15. Question: Do you offer a Web statistics package?
    
    Answer: It comes included with your account
    
    
16. Question: Will I have access to the raw statistical log files?
    
    Answer: yes you will
    
    
17. Question: Does the space used by my logs count against my allotted disk space?
    
    Answer: It doesn't really matter since our shared plans are set to unlimited
    
    
18. Question: How much space am I alotted for databases such as MySQL?
    
    Answer: We have no set limitations on databases on our linux plans
    
    
19. Question: Do you offer Frontpage extensions?
    
    Answer: Yes server side extensions are enabled.
    
    
20. Question: Do you offer Secure Socket Layer?
    
    Answer: Yes. Our linux plans come with a shared ssl, but if you require a domain specific ssl we offer them at a cost of $25.95 per year for a rapid certificate. Note though if you are not on a business class plan you will also need a dedicated ip at a cost of $2.00 per month on top of that.
    
    
21. Question: How many email accounts, forwards, and email aliases can I have?
    
    Answer: Unlimited
    
    
22. Question: Is sending to opt-in email lists allowed? (i.e., e-newsletters, autoresponders, etc.)
    
    Answer: We don't allow bulk mailing of any kind on our shared accounts. If you are sending out a large newsletter, you need our email marketing class in addition to your hosting plan. Our hosting plans are that, for hosting your website and sending out emails to your friends and family, No large mailing lists nor bulk mailing is allowed.
    
    
23. Question: How many emails can I send out per hour and day?
    
    Answer: 1000 emails per hour for normal traffic. Again our hosting plans are for hosting your website and sending out emails to your friends and family only.
    
    
24. Question: Is your package upgradable and what should I expect if I ever need to upgrade to a larger package?
    
    Answer: Upgrading to business or a reseller account is pretty simple. We do a prorated upgrade in billing and have our migrations team transfer the files for you.
    
    
25. Question: Do you have a money-back guarantee?
    
    Answer: 60 day
    
    
26. Question: What are your billing and cancellation policies?
    
    Answer: You can cancel at any time but we only offer refunds in the first 60 days.
    
    
27. Question: What is your acceptable usage policy in a nutshell?
    
    Answer: To surmise the following things directly violate our acceptible use policy: DMCA Violations, illegal activities (or the promotion of such), harm to minors, threats to others, harassment, fraudulent activity, forgery or impersonation, unsolicited commercial emails, bulk emailing (shared accounts), email news bombing, email message forging, unauthorized access (ie trying to connect to other servers through our server without authorization), copyright or trademark infringement, collection of personal data, distribution of viruses, inappropriate use of software, verbal abuse of support personnel, and third party accountibility (ie you are responsible for anyone you give access to your account). It really can't be summed up simply so I still suggest looking it over at our site.
    
    
28. 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: If you exceed the limitations of your account or are found to be abusing the server we will most likely just request that you upgrade to a bigger package. However if you are crashing the server with your usage then you may be suspended.
    
    
29. Question: Can I set up a free trial period?
    
    Answer: We don't offer a free trial
    
    
30. Question: How soon can I expect to obtain access to my Web site after I submit my order?
    
    Answer: For shared accounts they are typically automatically setup by the system within minutes.
    
    
31. Question: Do you impose file size upload limits and, if so, what are they?
    
    Answer: No we do not put a limit on the size of a file upload. You are able to configure your own settings.
    
    
32. 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: No, we do not put a limit on the number of files in a directory.
    
    
33. 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, we do not put a limit on the size of a directory.
    
    
34. 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: There is not a inode limit on the server. We do not have any direct CPU, RAM, nor memory restrictions in our shared hosting.
    
    
35. Question: Is there a limit to how many simultaneous HTTP connections there can be and, if so, what are they?
    
    Answer: We do have a limit of concurrent connections on the account (not limited to just HTTP) and it depends on the plan you are on. The Personal Class plan is up to 25 and the BusinessClass is up to 50. The VPS plans do not have this limit.
    
    
36. Question: Is there a limit to how many simultaneous PHP connections there can be and, if so, what are they?
    
    Answer: The PHP connection limit is limited to your total concurrent connections.
    
    
37. 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: The database connection limit is limited to your total concurrent connections.
    
    
38. Question: Is there a limit to how many simultaneous FTP connections there can be and, if so, what are they?
    
    Answer: The FTP connection limit is limited to your total concurrent connections.
    
    
39. 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: Yes we do. The IMAP connection limit is limited to your total concurrent connections.
    
    
40. 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: If the limits are reached the page returns a 500 error. Once the connection limit drops you are able to access your site again without an issue.
    
    If the connection limit is 25 then it means you can't have more then 25 connections to the server at one time. It's like saying you can't have more then 25 people click on a link at the exact same time (a PHP process is spawned but immediately dies after the website is displayed)
    
    
41. Question: Do you offer ffmpeg for video conversion and video sharing? If so, are there any limitations and what are they?
    
    Answer: Yes we do. There are no limits placed on this.
    
    
42. Question: Do you host adult content or web sites?
    
    Answer: Yes we do.
    
    
43. 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: We actively monitor the IPs of our shared server. If for some reason the IP is blocked or marked as a spam on a blacklist we immediately work on the this issue, usually fixing it right away. Unfortunately there is no way to guarantee that this will never happen unless a dedicated IP is purchased for your account ($2/month).
    
    
44. 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 nightly backups on our PersonalClass servers and hourly backups on our BusinessClass servers.
    
    
45. 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 would need to get an SSL ($25.99/year) and a dedicated IP ($2/month) setup on your account. This will allow secure logins. We do not have any recommends on credit card companies to use through.
    
    
46. 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: If you terminate your account with us, you need to let us know that you want to cancel your plan after you have removed your files. If there is a violation of our TOS the grace time you are given ranges. It is usually 24 hours (Your site will only be accessible to you during this time).