RE: [FreeDNS] yi.org

["Anna Swanepoel" <anna@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I agree, the US companies offer very attractive prices and features and if
you're happy with the service levels, then it's great. A lot of people are
happily hosting with US companies. I think that the reason that some people
prefer a local host is, that support and sales queries are dealt with via
e-mail, which implies a waiting period for replies and it can drag on a bit
when there is some confusion about what exactly the question was, etc.
Phoning the US host is also a bit expensive and inconvenient due to the time
differences. In some cases however, it is worth the trouble, especially if
the price and service levels are good. On the other hand a lot of people
would prefer the idea that they can pick up the phone during business hours
and get an immediate answer and/or reaction to sales and support queries
and/or can meet with a representative of the company, if necessary. It
really boils down to what the hosting client's requirements are.

When it comes to price, one must also take into account the cost of
bandwidth to local providers. In all fairness to our competitors, the ones
that provide dial-up services as well, have a lot of overheads when it comes
to bandwidth, support and billing infrastructure. The reason why we can
offer such good prices is that
1) we are not a dial-up provider, we only provide web hosting and domain
e-mail forwarding services, so we do not have all of the costs that go hand
in hand with providing dial-up. We can facilitate a dial-up solution for
you, but we make it very clear that these solutions are not provided by
ourselves.
2)we only offer solutions that we can support effectively and do not try to
be everything to everybody. We won't spend our time and money on trying to
offer every possible feature, if it is not to the greater advantage of most
of our existing and prospective clients, as it will just mean increased
costs that will have to translate into higher fees to our clients. In
instances where clients require features that we cannot offer, we will
rather refer them to our competitors.

When it comes to the question of service levels, we are defenitely prepared
to back up any promises and claims that we make.

Okay, before I sound like and advertisement..... :-) No, the reason for the
lengthy explanation, is just to prove the point that it is possible for
local companies to offer good prices and service-levels.....and obviously to
explain that we're not just "cheap and nasty".... ;-)


Anna Swanepoel
All Africa Technologies
Tel: 011-805 4310
     011-805 8111
Fax: 011-315 1839
E-mail: anna@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Web: http://www.allafrica.co.za
     http://www.buydomains.co.za
     http://www.quickweb.co.za
     http://www.dolphinawards.co.za

WEB HOSTING FROM R25 PER MONTH
DOMAIN REGISTRATION FROM R50 ONCE OFF
WEBDESIGN FROM R500 ONCE OFF OR R50 PER MONTH
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-----Original Message-----
From: freedns-admin@xxxxxx [mailto:freedns-admin@xxxxxx]On Behalf Of
Johann Visagie
Sent: 14 November 2000 03:18
To: freedns@xxxxxx
Subject: Re: [FreeDNS] yi.org


Anna Swanepoel on 2000-11-14 (Tue) at 14:28:54 +0200:
>
> Oh well, now that Andre is quoting prices....and no, not all local
companies
> charge R299 or more...
>
> All Africa offers hosting from R25 per month for the remainder of 2000,
from
> R50 p.m as of January 2001. You can however apply before 20/12/2000 and
> provide annual upfront payment at the 2000 price.

With all due respect to Anna and her company (with which I've had no
dealings
and upon whom I cannot therefore comment), I've always been less than amused
both with the prices charged and the service offered by most local hosting
firms.  I'm glad to see someone is slashing the prices; just make sure the
service levels are comparable to US firms!

As far as US hosting providers are concerned, I've had particularly pleasant
dealings in the past with CI Host (http://www.cihost.com) and Pair.com
(http://www.pair.com).  It's well worth digging through the pages of either
and seeing exactly what specials they're offering.  Both have extremely
flexible packages to allow you to buy just exactly what you need.

*cough*  Before I start sounding like an advertisement...  There are also a
number of sites which compare various hosting firms, e.g. hostindex.com,
hostglobal.com, hostcrawler.com, hostcompare.com, etc.

-- V
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FreeDNS                    ZA NiC - free domain names
freedns@xxxxxx    Archive: http://www.za.net/freedns/