Home Based Hosting Comparison

OK, we run a business from home. So people often assume that we will run your website from our home on our pc on our dsl line. Relax, we don't.

We operate our own network in a private datacenter with a bigger backbone than most commercial data centers have to service hundreds of hosting companies. Our servers are top of the line and highly redundant with advanced monitoring systems. All servers are on full battery backup with a diesel generator on 24 hour stand by ready to start in the event of a power failure.

To give us some credibility we are posting an actual photo of the pageBuzz cluster of servers from when we started in 2004. We have since upgraded to new servers and more of them which are even more impressive but not shown for security reasons. If you host with pageBuzz, your website will be on a group of servers like these. Unlike smaller companies that run everything on one server or large companies that run large numbers or smaller servers, we run one large hosting cluster similar to the way google runs 100,000 servers for one website. Although we are slightly smaller than google by almost 100,000 servers the concept is the same.

Below is a photo comparison of our servers (now retired) and our competition. You will see that it is not uncommon for our competitors to stack open motherboards and hard drives in shelves and call them servers. The obvious problems that can occur like shorts and fires are slim compared to the inability to cool and monitor server functions. Common sense should tell you that a $25,000.00 server is better than a $250.00 motherboard sitting on a shelf. Likewise 10 $25,0000.00 servers networked will do much more than 10 walmart pc's removed from the cases.

Our network is unique in that our clustering software was developed in house and is unlike anything any other company can offer. Read more about our own backup clustering software, ARTB. We capitalize on the full power of the network giving your website seemingly unlimited capacity for traffic and viewers. The big bonus is we never charge extra for bandwidth or heavy traffic.

Most companies put your website on one small independent server that has only its own resources available. On heavy loads often imposed by other websites on the server, it can slow down or shut down completely. In many cases, they just deny connections and give a message that the server is busy and to try back later.

The most common web servers are standard desktop PC's on shelves, no monitors, not frills, just stacked together to maximize space. These are the same computers that you can buy at wal-mart, best buy or other retailers.

Below is a sample photo of how most hosting companies operate with shelves of cheap desktops. The reason is simple, the cost is very low and they can offer services much cheaper. It all makes perfect sense, except that cheap hardware is not reliable or as powerful as commercial enterprise equipment.

For us having your website reachable only part of the time is not acceptable. So we run a unique high end system that can redistribute loads and insure high levels of accessibility. That is not to say we don't have our share of hard drive failures and network issues, but you wont have a screw drop off a shelf and short out your server in our datacenter.

Although we have spent considerably more than most companies for the hardware your website runs from, the increased capacity our system offers and the money we save by running our office from home makes our product even more affordable than the people offering home built servers on wooden racks.

We may answer the phones from our home, but we take our product seriously and have more technology and resources than most larger companies can offer.

The simple fact that we can spend $500,000 on server hardware is proof of our success. It is the smaller companies that string old laptops and garage sale specials together as networks that seem to charge 10 times as much as we do for less of a product.

We always advise knowing who you are dealing with and trying to avoid companies like the one shown above. Many sites with fancy fronts and big sales pitches are backed up with nothing and are running from a teenagers bedroom on some old laptops.

Ultimately you will need to chose which is better for you, but if you explore the options, the choice should be an easy one.

Although the photo shown of some boxtop servers on a wooden shelf is not representative of any particular hosting competitor, that type of network is more common that most people realize.

More and more home based web hosts pop up daily running from laptops on DSL lines and selling space as if they are a top notch service provider. Most often their own website says just that. "We are a top notch international Corporation", but in fact they are not incorporated at all and most don't even offer a phone number.

It is very important that everyone realizes these key facts. Since you will likely never travel to the companies datacenter, you will never know what type of network you are on. Make sure you do some checking, before it is too late.

If your web host is offended by you questioning their hardware it is probably because they are hiding something.