As far as I can remember, Philaahzophy.com is not new to me. I think I’ve seen and mentioned this site on this blog way before when I had a grand review about THC’s lifetime Rudolf hosting plan last February (which is now unavailable — unfortunately). He was still positive to THC that time — far different from his views now.

On Philaahzophy’s latest post as I checked it entitled "Top Hosting Center Can’t Keep Own Website Online!," I believe Aahz missed to read something from his H-Sphere control panel. I am not sure if he is on Rudolf hosting plan or Speedy (I didn’t have interest to research) but I know he is one of THC’s customers and claimed that he used to be a "big fan" of the web host. His post was a bomb to THC and considering that THC announced the event prior to their downtime, this blogger once again shooted blanks.

While it is true that the official homepage of Top Hosting Center was down as of this writing, I wasn’t surprised. I’ve read yesterday from the company’s H-Sphere control panel news section that they are going to change their IP address as they’ve always done in the past months (this is something Aahz missed to read). I’m not sure how many hours had it been in downtime status but I have asked some friends abroad and they told me that they can fully access the website (which makes me believe that DNS information propagation is complete on some places). I don’t know if other THC users noticed the advisory but for sure it is conspicuous enough to get noticed. Since I’m in the Philippines and THC servers are in North America, I guess I will have to wait for the site to go up. It is a good thing that this blog or any customer sites (and hosting functionality) was not affected by their downtime otherwise it would be real shitty.  

As far as I know based on my working Cisco networking knowledge, changing an IP address does not take effect immediately and unfortunately domains undergoing IP changes will experience downtime. Changes that undergoes downtime include IP updates, IP transition from shared to dedicated IPs and vice versa, and name server changes.

To THC: Aahz May Be Right, But Not Completely Right

I do not say that Aahz is completely wrong. He was just shooting blanks on some ways; he may be right, but well, not completely right on his claims since I highly believe he missed the advisory. Plus, he could be on a shared hosting — and you can’t expect a dedicated server quality on a shared hosting plan!

Now this is for you THC: like what he said on his first post,  I agree that there have been quite a few times that THC had problems with their hosting services. Although they are fast in responding to support and delivering solutions to problems, complaints like from Aahz’s is a sign that THC needs to be consistent and make their impatient customers feel what a good host is. It doesn’t feel good to defend something that doesn’t deserve to be defended. Fortunately, THC isn’t as worse as Aahz described it based on my experience. He was a bit too extreme. Perhaps he needs to get a dedicated server. Believe me, you will never find a host that doesn’t experience downtimes especially on shared hosting.

Bottomline

If Top Hosting Center wasn’t good enough, as it never became a perfect web host, I would have flown to other web hosting companies. I’ve got lots of sponsorship offers for this blog from other web hosts yet I’ve denied them all because I like the way THC handles its hosting services. Plus, I don’t need to worry about a thing because they have backups accessible. An anonymous hacker tried to devastate this blog earlier this month and THC was very, very quick to restore my database. I’m sure other customers can have similar experience as THC’s support is just a matter of clicks away. In my case, I write to them via email but I can also use their live chat for basic issues and trouble ticket on my H-Sphere control panel as well.

Speedy Versus Rudolf

The hosting features of Speedy plan can be emphasized by putting it side by side with the infamous Rudolf plan which I believed to be one of the greatest hosting plans the Web has ever seen during its time.

As you can see above, Speedy is distinguishable by its enormous disk space and monthly bandwidth. Plus it comes with free dedicated IP address and a domain name, along with other hosting features Rudolf has. Perhaps one of the things you would care is that Speedy is regular hosting plan priced at $6.75 per month for 24-month subscription, unlike Rudolf which was introduced as lifetime hosting plan for only $95.

Like what I expressed in the post when I first experienced Speedy, honestly I was very excited for its features. My previous Rudolf plan felt great as is, considering that I don’t have to pay for its monthly fees and enjoy hosting for life. However, I wanted to have the best for this blog. So, when THC unleashed its Speedy hosting plan, I was one of the early people who were able to taste its glory.

The Glory of Dedicated IP

Other than the great bump of its figures in terms of disk space and bandwidth, it is the dedicated IP address that makes Speedy hosting plan rather distinctive compared to its competitors. THC is proud that Speedy is the best hosting plan with its level as shown in their comparison page.

Once you buy a Speedy plan and you gain access to THC’s H-Sphere control panel, you will get one dedicated IP address that you can use to any of your domains. Unfortunately, a dedicated IP address can only be used by one domain, so if you need more, you have to pay add-on for $24 per static IP address per year. Once again, THC offers the cheapest rate with this optional upgrade for your domains. If you don’t have any idea about the importance of a dedicated IP address, this post is a good reference for you.

Now, knowing that this blog run with Speedy’s dedicated IP address for over a month now – was it able to make any difference at all? My answer is a resounding yes. Other than extended FTP functionality, one thing I noticed is that this blog got better traffic from search engines. It was scarce before when I was still under Rudolf’s shared IP. Another thing I noticed is that my domain’s emails received less spams. As you know, having a dedicated IP address protects you from being affected by other abusing users on a shared hosting environment. Chances of getting unsolicited emails and damaging your growing business reputation resulting from shared IP being blacklisted are greatly avoided.

The Speedy Hosting Experience

At first, I was greatly thrilled of the abundance brought about by Speedy. With four times disk space capacity (1,000 GB) and ten times monthly bandwidth (33,000 GB) allocation than that of Speedy hosting plan, dreams and daydreams of having dozens of sites having large contents are definitely possible. More sites, more money – that is what I thought.

Later on, I realized that it is quite hard to take advantage the enormous disk space and bandwidth (well, for my case). Adding quality contents to each of your sites and managing them are more challenging than merely getting large margins of hosting resources. However for web entrepreneurs and webmasters who have multiple existing domains and rapidly-growing websites, Speedy’s resources are sure-fire advantage.

Adding quality contents to each of your sites and managing them are more challenging than merely getting large margins of hosting resources

The hosting experience in general is rather identical to that of Rudolf hosting plan except worries of having deficient disk space and limited bandwidth are eliminated – which is good, less stress.

Speedy is only available on Linux platform. THC found out in their previous hosting plan experience that customers favor Linux platform than Windows. This is seconded by them because Linux is more stable, faster, and secure. If you need a Windows plan, however, ask THC’s live chat representatives for a Rudolf Windows plan (I heard Rudolf is still available on demand despite being out of the spotlight).

As usual, Top Hosting Center still excels in the area of customer support – which plays a vital role of having a pleasant hosting experience with them. Their chat support representatives are responsive and well-informed. They immediately act when they get aware that a problem has struck to any of their customer’s websites. Same goes with their trouble ticket system – responses and solutions arrive in timely fashion.

Little Shortcomings

Shortly after Speedy hosting plan was introduced, THC announced the change of H-Sphere’s EasyApp collection. EasyApp is a set of one-click-install PHP applications similar to CPanel’s Fantastico. EasyApp applications include CMS, blog platforms, e-mail and chat applications, among others.

THC is not anymore relying on default EasyApp package from PSoft, the provider of their H-Sphere control panel and EasyApp. According to THC, PSoft failed to deliver updates on time when customers need them. So, they outsourced custom EasyApp packages from HSpherePlugins.com, a third-party developer for H-Sphere. Now, despite applications being up-to-date, the number of EasyApp applications kind of reduced. You don’t have to worry though; WordPress and other important applications are still there and would possibly expand in the future.

Another thing worth mentioning during my observation is that Speedy is not slowdown-free. My blog experienced several slowdowns sporadically within the month. It is good to know, however, that despite Speedy being so generous, it is still running on a shared hosting environment – a kind of hosting that is not totally free from hosting problems such as slowdowns and downtimes which is normal.

Related Articles From THC Speedy Customers

If you have tried THC’s Speedy hosting plan and you write a review, please inform me and I will add your review hereunder. So far, these are the customers who expressed their opinions regarding THC’s Speedy hosting plan.

• New Hosting For GrandmasterB.com

Conclusion: Is Speedy The Next Big Thing?

I remember THC calling Speedy “the biggest standard hosting plan” they’ve done to date when they unleashed it. By reviewing the page they made comparing Speedy versus the hosting plans from other big hosting companies, I would say Speedy is superb. It deserves the throne of Rudolf hosting plan, which however is still very good for thrifty and frugal online entrepreneurs.

Then again, I would like to emphasize the nature of shared hosting. Despite Speedy being so big and great, figures will not guarantee a problem-free and dedicated-hosting-like web hosting. However, its free dedicated IP is a consolation, and with THC’s quick-responding support department, you will get a pleasant hosting experience for you and your business.

Despite Speedy being so big and great, figures will not guarantee a problem-free and dedicated-hosting-like web hosting.

Now if you don’t bother paying monthly fees for your web hosting, and for the sake of abundance, better SEO and quality of hosting, Top Hosting Center successfully wipes off their hosting contenders with the striking features of their Speedy hosting plan – and that is a big thing.

Shared or Dedicated IP Addresses – Say What?

Most shared hosting plans from hosting companies by default offer shared IP addresses to run their customers’ domains.

To be clear, first let us determine the difference between a shared hosting plan and a shared IP address since these are two different things. A shared hosting plan is a hosting account that runs on a single, physical server shared by other users having similar hosting accounts – thus the word “shared.” A shared IP address, on the other hand, is a real address of a website or server. Instead of real IP addresses, a domain name is used for convenience to represent a website. Since a single server can handle multiple domains running on it, these domains could represent one shared IP address. By default, the domains of other users on same shared server are pointing to a common, shared IP address.

Domains hosted on a shared hosting account, however, are not restricted to use only a shared IP address. They can be as well configured individually to be assigned a static, dedicated IP address that is utilized only by a one domain.

For shared hosting plans, a dedicated IP address is usually a premium upgrade to most hosting companies which costs around $2.50 per month. Certain hosting companies like IXWebHosting and Top Hosting Center (to name a few), include dedicated IP addresses to their shared hosting packages which is excellent.

The Impacts Of Having A Dedicated IP Address

Acquiring a dedicated IP address for your domain brings the following benefits:

Scam and Spam Blacklist Protection – In a shared hosting environment, if someone you share with a common IP gets trouble for spamming or scamming, the shared IP address could get blacklisted or banned by Internet Service Providers (ISP) and it would affect all domains using the said shared IP address. When your shared IP address is banned or blacklisted on some ISPs, your website will not be accessible to some areas in the world and your emails get blocked. It would directly affect your online business operations, search engine ranking and reputation. Getting a dedicated IP address resolves this. A dedicated IP isolates your domain and protects it from being affected from the consequences of abuses done by other shared users.

Business Identity Support – With a dedicated IP address, online businesses can have the confidence of better identity. Customers feel unsafe doing monetary transactions on sites that use a shared IP address because of reliability and security issues. A truth about this is that security certificates like private SSL requires a website to run over a dedicated IP address before it can accept credit cards online. Although you can still run an e-commerce site using a shared IP address, through a shared SSL certificate, having your own dedicated IP will make things easier and convince your customers to avail products or services, and close deals.

Enhanced Search Engine Optimization – Search engines track websites through their addresses (domain name and IPs). It has been found that most search engines favor websites running over dedicated IP address. Sites with a dedicated IP addresses do better in ranking on Search Engine Results Pages (SERP). For online businesses, this concern is very important.

Extended Hosting Functionality – Certain functions on a shared hosting plan cannot be enabled if you are using a shared IP address. For instance, Anonymous FTP can only be enabled with a dedicated IP address. Anonymous FTP lets anyone using FTP client software to access the files in a special directory of your site. Also, having a dedicated IP allows access to your website by FTP even if your domain name is still inaccessible due to propagation.

Knowing the benefits of having a dedicated IP address, I strongly encourage you to have it especially when you are running business-related sites and even blog like this. John Raul dot Com just shifted from shared IP to dedicated IP with the coming of THC’s Speedy hosting plan – and it is great.

THC’s Speedy hosting plan presents a fresh and bountiful pool of resources for Web enthusiasts and entrepreneurs. At THC’s web hosting blog, a Speedy-related post mentioned that it was “the company’s greatest standard hosting plan offer they’ve done to date.” For me, it sounds exciting, but a little intriguing as well knowing that their previous Rudolf hosting plan was good enough.

Among its standard hosting features, here are outstanding figures that comprise THC’s Speedy hosting plan:

• FREE Dedicated IP Address – usually this is an add-on to other hosting companies, normally costs at least $2.50 per month. THC had it free for Speedy, which is really good.
• 33 000 GB Monthly Bandwidth – I remember THC offering only 3000 GB bandwidth with their previous hosting plans (including Rudolf).
• 1000 GB Disk Space – Self-explanatory, but great hands down. Previous hosting plans only featured 250 GB, which definitely was a history.
• Free Domain Name – it’s awful to know some hosts (not THC) don’t include a domain name in their hosting plans. They do it usually to look their plans cheaper against their competitors.
• Aggressive Pricing – At THC’s Speedy comparison page, the hosting plan costs as low as $6.75 / month. Commonly, the pricing is dependent to the billing cycle of the hosting plan. I found out that THC had Speedy aggressively-priced, beating all matching hosting packages from other hosting companies such as Host Monster, Dreamhost, Bluehost, Go Daddy and Host Gator. I checked their competitors’ sites and their price comparison was rather true. However, I will have to verify its features further. Sometimes, companies are biased to their own products. I will go find out the truthfulness of their page and whistle blow if I found something fishy.

According to their live chat representatives, their existing Rudolf customers can upgrade to Speedy hosting plan. Honestly, I don’t see so much point about that since Rudolf is already a lifetime plan with just one-time fee. However, I couldn’t blame seeing people moving towards Speedy from Rudolf since it comes with a free dedicated IP address, a terabyte disk space, a jaw-dropping 33,000 GB monthly bandwidth, and other features. Those figures are enough to convince them, as it did to me.

Yes, this blog now runs under Speedy hosting plan. I’m currently assessing the experience and I will write a comprehensive review soon whether it’s really hot or not. Initially I have a positive impression with it, especially knowing that this blog now runs over a dedicated IP address. If you are not aware, having a site running over a dedicated IP address will absolutely favor search engine optimization (SEO), plus it is very good in building legitimate business identity on the Internet, and certainly unleashes extra FTP functionality as well. I will explain in my future post why having a dedicated IP is important especially for online entrepreneurs.

It is very futuristic and has a very competitive lineup of hosting features that will break your worries on hosting.

I recommend that you check THC’s Speedy hosting plan. It is very futuristic and has a very competitive lineup of hosting features that will break your worries on hosting. By the way, if you sign-up for it, I recommend getting a 24-month plan for you to get huge discount – that’s what I got and it was very affordable for me. At least, the setup fee was waived, which would have cost me additional $25 if I got a one-month, 3-month, or 6-month plan.

So enough talk here, I will continue my observation in the back scene and assess this hosting plan for a week. I hope to bring good news from it.

By the way, if you have a product, service, or website related to this blog and you want it to be reviewed by me, check out this post. Let’s have some good time.