December 15, 2006.
1and1.com Web Hosting
Back in 1993, when I created my first web page, there were few choices for hosting and none of them were cheap.
I had already had an ftp site for some time using Netcom, my ISP at the time. When Mosaic appeared and the world wide web escaped from the academic and scientific world, it was only natural to experiment with HTML and create a page to show off my shareware and freeware.
Over the years, I have had my web pages hosted by numerous ISPs. Some of them offered free hosting. Others were paid for.
When 1and1.com offered 3 years of free hosting in 2003, they caught me at a good time. The traffic on my web site was hitting levels that would require higher monthly payments. Payments which would not be sustained by my meager income from the shareware and freeware I sell.
Gradually, I moved all of my pages from other hosts to 1and1.com.
I have to say that I have been very pleased with my decision. I have never been aware of a disruption in service during the time 1&1 has been my hosting ISP.
Technical support has been outstanding. Usually the answers to my questions are in the FAQs. When they aren't, I have had rapid and helpful responses by email from the tech support team.
I have enjoyed the use of many of the facilities of 1&1, including domain registration, email, MySQL database, php, ftp, cgi, albums, and debugging tools.
On the other hand, I can't recommend 1&1's webmail (it is sloooow), but mail2web.com works so well that I would never use anything else anyway and it is perfectly compatible with 1&1. POP3 access has been reliable and trouble free.
With hosting packages starting at $2.99 per month for 250GB of traffic anyone can afford to use a professional host like 1&1.
If your site becomes popular, you can get 2500GB of traffic and 250GB of web space for only $19.99 per month.
With a 90 day guarantee, you can't go wrong.
