Hi there,
Here's everything I could find out about AceInternet. Based on the
following I would not recommend them.
Sites hosted by AceInternet
===========================
Following these links might give you an idea of how fast their service
is. They both mention within their sites that they are hosted by
AceInternet:
www.leicesteryha.org.uk
www.napitalia.org.uk
Hosting actually by Web Fusion?
===============================
Some investigative work determined that the hosting service is
actually supplied by a third party, Web Fusion:
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&newwindow=1&safe=off&selm=NGxY5.1587%24Vv1.36047%40news6-win.server.ntlworld.com&rnum=1
I have checked the latest results and it's still the same, so perhaps
you could go straight to Web Fusion and get the same hosting service
without the middlemen:
Web Fusion
http://webfusion.co.uk/homeuser-info.shtml#data
--------------------
Domain Name:
aceinternet.co.uk
Registrant:
Ace Internet
Registrant's Address:
Ace Internet
Po Box 242 Macclesfield
Cheshire
SK10 2GA
Registrant's Agent:
No agent listed. Please refer to Nominet for further details.
Relevant Dates:
Registered on: 02-Dec-1999
Last updated: 12-Sep-2002
Name servers listed in order:
ns.aceinternet.co.uk 212.67.201.227
ns2.aceinternet.co.uk 212.67.201.228
ns.acedial.net 212.67.192.128
ns2.acedial.net 212.67.192.129
WHOIS database last updated at 03:05:01 04-Nov-2002
--------------------
inetnum: 212.67.201.0 - 212.67.201.255
netname: WEBFUSION
descr: Webfusion Internet Solutions Limited
descr: Nottingham
http://www.ripe.net/perl/whois?form_type=advanced&full_query_string=&searchtext=212.67.201.0&do_search=Search&inverse_attributes=None&ip_search_lvl=Default&alt_database=RIPE&object_type=All
--------------------
Negatives via Google Groups
===========================
Note: Usenet postings about hosting services tend to be negative, just
like everywhere else in the world - people complain more often than
they praise.
If you exceed the allowed bandwidth, AceInternet have been known to
charge customers a lot of money:
"I've had an account with Aceinternet for over eighteen months
and a few days ago a big American site featured mine. The
number of hits used 2.5Gbs of band width , well over the
allowed 1Gbs.
I had no warning of this, until Ace admin phoned me up demanding
money or else the site would be suspended. They asked for £80 for
this month ! Plus I'd have to upgrade to another higher account.
next month for £117 !
My site is not a business, I dont make a penny from it.
So I decided to find a new host, one which allows 5Gbs BandWidth
for £35 a year. I tried to close my account and move on.
Aceinternet won't change the IPS tags, unless I pay the 'unpaid
bill'
So I either pay £177, or I can't use my domain !!
The site is now suspended and they're ignoring my email."
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&newwindow=1&safe=off&selm=3c65c33c%40news.aceinternet.co.uk&prev=/groups%3Fnum%3D30%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26ie%3DISO-8859-1%26newwindow%3D1%26safe%3Doff%26q%3DAceInternet%2B%26sa%3DN%26tab%3Dwg
I find it more disturbing when I read the entire thread and realise
that it appears to be an employee of AceInternet arguing with others.
Another poster says:
"One thing's certain Steve. After the childish and unprofessional way
in which you have dealt with this matter, on a public forum, I shan't
be using Ace Internet for anything. I wonder what your marketing
people would think of what you have been writing here, sig or no sig."
The whole thread is at:
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&newwindow=1&safe=off&threadm=3c65c33c%40news.aceinternet.co.uk&rnum=1&prev=/groups%3Fhl%3Den%26lr%3D%26ie%3DUTF-8%26newwindow%3D1%26safe%3Doff%26selm%3D3c65c33c%2540news.aceinternet.co.uk%26prev%3D/groups%253Fnum%253D30%2526hl%253Den%2526lr%253D%2526ie%253DISO-8859-1%2526newwindow%253D1%2526safe%253Doff%2526q%253DAceInternet%252B%2526sa%253DN%2526
ab%253Dwg
More complaint threads:
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&newwindow=1&safe=off&threadm=9tkte8%24kvn%241%40news6.svr.pol.co.uk&rnum=2&prev=/groups%3Fnum%3D30%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26ie%3DISO-8859-1%26newwindow%3D1%26safe%3Doff%26q%3DAceInternet%2B%26sa%3DN%26tab%3Dwg
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&newwindow=1&safe=off&threadm=3b6c8a97%40news.aceinternet.co.uk&rnum=15&prev=/groups%3Fnum%3D30%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26ie%3DISO-8859-1%26newwindow%3D1%26safe%3Doff%26q%3DAceInternet%2B%26sa%3DN%26tab%3Dwg
Charging outrageous amounts for excess bandwidth is one way some hosts
make their money. This is from AceInternet's support pages:
"Extra bandwidth using pay-as-you-go is charged at 2.5 pence per Mb."
http://support.aceinternet.co.uk/faq.asp?id=32
Their rules are more complicated than that, so I suggest that you read
the entire page. Needless to say, it works out as £30 per GB. This is
ridiculous when you consider they are charging £25 for a year of 1GB
per month. And you can't access or move your website until you pay it.
It's also on their Terms page:
http://www.ace-internet.co.uk/terms.html
My negative impressions of their site
=====================================
Some aspects of their website put me off straight away:
- I cannot reach their page on hosting with cookies turned off. No
message, just an infinite loop of trying to load the page. I have
never come across this before, which implies they can be unorthodox in
their ways.
- Third-party ads on their homepage - very unprofessional.
- Combining internet access and hosting. Usually businesses are better
if they focus on one thing. Their main business is as an ISP, and they
offer free web space to their dial-up customers. In my experience,
free web space from an ISP is never top quality.
- Lack of detailed info for their hosting packages. The best hosts
tend to be a bit more enthusiastic about their products.
Positives
=========
I have copied this letter to PC Plus magazine verbatim, in case you
cannot access the .pdf file:
"Having recently received an invoice for £250 to host my
company’s domain, I decided to move it to an alternative
ISP. Having asked my current ISP why it cost so much, I
was told that it was because of its quality of service.
Having asked to transfer my domain to the new
company, I was assured that I would be told when it was
done so I wouldn’t lose any email. Surprise, surprise, I
was not told and when I tried to log in the domain was
nowhere to be found.
I decided to go to Ace Internet’s site (www.aceinternet.
co.uk) and request its £22.50 package, asking
for four email addresses for others with accounts on my
domain. Being a Sunday, I didn’t expect anything to
happen until Monday. Having received what I assumed
was an automated confirmation email, I replied and
explained my problem hoping that it would receive swift
treatment the next day. Within a hour, I received a
response requesting further information, and two hours
later, my site was fully functional. I’m sure that £22.50
barely covers the time spent setting this up, let alone
hosting my site for a year.
I have used Ace Internet before as it is one of the
cheapest sites I have found for domain names (£5.95
plus VAT for two years), and on the two occasions I have
contacted them by phone I have been impressed.
I hope you can print this letter as I feel that this could
teach the ‘big boys’ a thing about customer service.
Lee"
from PC Plus
www.pcplus.co.uk/media/pcplus/pdf/177/177.campaign.pdf
Search strategy
===============
Google Groups:
AceInternet
http://groups.google.com/groups?num=30&hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&newwindow=1&safe=off&q=AceInternet+&sa=N&tab=wg
That's everything I could find. I hope it helps you with your
decision.
Best wishes,
robertskelton-ga |
