Choosing a Web Host

Compatibility

Windows, yes. Others, no.

That's it in a nutshell.

Most hosting companies offer a "Windows" service and a "Linux" service. Some web hosts offer specific flavours of Linux or Unix, but that's not relevant here.

If you hosting company offers a Windows web server then their service is likely compatible with our software. If you would like to test your web server then please download the "Server Test Utility" which is a simple script that you can upload to your web server to test its features and ensure its compatibility with our products.

20/20 DataShed, 20/20 Real Estate, and 20/20 Auto Gallery are all compatible with Microsoft web servers since IIS version 4. But the preferred web server is the Microsoft Internet Information Server version 6.0 or higher. Particularly in non-English or multi-lingual settings, we highly recommend you find a web host which offers the most recent version of the Microsoft Windows Server system (at the time of this writing, the most recent version was "Windows Server 2003").

Why "Windows Servers"?

Because our products use a server-side scripting technology called ASP in conjunction with Microsoft Access databases -- both of these technologies require the Microsoft web server.

More information is available in this article at our web site.

What About Chilisoft for Linux? (Sun ONE ASP)

Sun Microsystems supports an ASP environment nicknamed "ChiliSoft", and in theory it is compatible with Microsoft's ASP. However, 20/20 products use combines many technologies that are only available in the Microsoft Windows operating system. 20/20 products will not work properly in the ChiliSoft environment because:

The native Sun One ASP SMTP-email component is not supported by 20/20 DataShed. For email services our products support CDONTS (native Microsoft component), CDOSYS (native Microsoft component), ASPEmail (by Peter Persits), ASPMail and ASPQMail (by serverobjects.com), JMail (by Dimac), SMTPMail (by SoftArtisans), MailEnable (by MailEnable.com), and MailMill (by activeplus.com). We would like to add the Sun One ASP email component to the list in the future but other issues also need to be addressed first -- as follows...
Sun One ASP has suffered late-adoption of some of the features added in later versions of Microsoft's ASP. GetLocale() and SetLocale() are not supported yet for example.
We have not yet developed an alternative codebase to support the differences between MS-VBScript and Sun-VBScript. Some of those differences are discussed briefly here: http://balu.sch.bme.hu/asp_dif.html
Nobody is certain yet whether Sun Microsystems will be able to adopt the Microsoft XMLDom and XMLHTTP object libraries - or if they'll be creating their own clones of those libraries. These libraries are used heavily by our product.

Web Hosts -- Who's HOT and Who's NOT

If we have dealt with our customers' hosting services, they're terrible.
If we have never heard of a hosting company, they're probably excellent.

Why? Because customers who:

like their hosting company
and receive good technical support
and have a web site that always works

...never contact us.

People who:

have a terrible hosting service
do not receive good technical support from their host
and have a broken web site

...contact us regularly!

Over the years we've compiled a short list of web hosting services that we think are quite good and some that we think should fall off the edge of the Earth and should never bother us again. That list is below:

HOT
(in no particular order)

www.easycgi.com: Customers who use EasyCGI rarely report any problems with their service or with our software.
www.lfchosting.com: Customers who use LFCHosting rarely report any problems with their service or with our software.; They are a relatively small company and, as you might expect, you get to talk to a real person when you request technical support.
www.1and1.com: Our customers who use 1and1.com have reported good services and prices and rarely contact us for technical support assistance.
www.hostway.com: There are international options available in the United Kingdom, Australia, Germany, and Netherlands.; Our customers who use hostway.com have claimed to be happy with the adequate control panel, and premium technical support (which offsets the higher price).
www.interland.com: Our customers who use interland.com appear to be pleased with their technical support and the control panel.
www.verio.com: Customers who use Verio rarely report any problems with their service or with our software.
www.3shost.com: Customers who use 3sHost rarely report any problems with their service or with our software.

NOT
(from bad to worst)

PRW: PRW will not grant "Delete" permission to any web page or application that they did not themselves author. It's understandable that some web hosts are apprehensive about allowing web pages to perform basic file management, but rather than set policies based on whether they have built the web page we would like PRW to set policy based on fact and objective evaluation of the software. We do not believe that our product is malicious and we do not believe that our software allows malicious manipulation/deletion of files -- such file management is strictly controlled within 20/20 products and therefore we feel that PRW's policy is unwarranted and too restrictive.
HostGator: We believe HostGator offers a very good service but unfortunately they do not operate any Microsoft Windows server systems. Their services are not compatible with our products.
GoDaddy: GoDaddy's Windows hosting service is theoretically compatible with our products but our customers have reported many issues including technical support problems and understanding the GoDaddy hosting control panel. 20/20 Applications customers using GoDaddy hosting report more problems than all other hosting services combined!; If your web site is already hosted at GoDaddy, then fine...don't worry...keep your web site on their servers. But you may experience some difficulties which other customers don't. Ultimately it comes down to a decision between the least worst option: a) Should I move the web site to a different host? or b) Should I keep the web site at GoDaddy and just deal with problems if they arise? (That choice is up to you).