I've contracted some shared server space from a Moodle Partner. I'm an individual teacher, not representing a school, and I pay out of my pocket.
I wrote to several potential hosts, and several seemed good, but finally decided I wanted one near my time zone so I can call for service if necessary, which narrowed my options a bit.
First I did a 90 day trial (sandpit) with one Moodle partner. Shortly before the 90 days were up, I tried to contact them for info. I got no response. I noticed that right around that time, that company's name disappeared from the partner list. They never answered my question as to why that happened.
So, I eventually figured out how to backup everything myself and moved to the second Moodle partner, who offered me what I think is a fair price. However, I've found that I don't get timely responses to my email requests for help. I've offered to pay for the help, but that doesn't seem to move them. Calling works, if I catch them at work, but it's long distance for me. I haven't tried making a lot of calls because I'm waiting to see if this is going to work out. I don't want to get in the habit of chasing down my host for help. So, I'm doing a test. I made a call last Thursday and couldn't reach them. I sent an email right away. Now it's Monday evening here, and I haven't heard back.
So, anyone have an opinion? How much time is reasonable to wait for a response to my questions given that I'm not paying the big bucks for my own server? Particularly, should I expect that nothing is going to happen on the weekends? If I want quick service, how much more is reasonable to pay, if anything? I'm going to be doing most of the work on my website on the weekends, so I effectively lose a week of work if I can't get a response during those two days.
I try not to ask about anything that I can help with through the forums, whether here or elsewhere on the web.
I really wanted to try to support the Moodle project by using a partner. I figure by spending a little more, I'm donating it to the development. But I guess I also expected a little more in return.
what response time should I expect from a host?
Number of replies: 2Re: what response time should I expect from a host?
Kinda tough question.
People at "Servers and Performance" bother about response times in the order of a fraction of seconds, then they are talking to machines! ;-(
People at "Servers and Performance" bother about response times in the order of a fraction of seconds, then they are talking to machines! ;-(
Re: what response time should I expect from a host?
One of the best web hosting companies in Finland has always responded to me within 15 minutes of my email, and I'm not even their customer. I've asked things like if they have safe mode on/off, php/mysql version, quotes for dedicated server... Not very tough questions, but I was still very impressed with the response times.
Basically it also depends on what you asked.
Basically it also depends on what you asked.