Welp, all this talk about other hosting services in other areas of the forum got me a little misty and I decided to take a wee peek back at the history of my former hosts being eaten for dinner.  Now all the youngins here probably won't recognize names like "SpryNet" and "MindSpring" (both eaten alive by Earthlink) but for the old codgers here like me, this trip down Web Hosting Memory Lane might prove to be both a reflective and reflexive delight.

Way back in 1995 I set up my first domain with DeltaNet.  They were a fine web hosting service and a lovely dial up joint as well.  They were later eaten alive by Concentric who was later eaten alive by XO (and then spit up again as Concentric separately for dial up service.)  Concentric was an excellent ISP back then when I was with them.  Fast and robust!  DeltaNet's servers were also quite quick.  DeltaNet might be back in some kind of name form, but the DeltaNet of today is not the DeltaNet I dealt-a with.

A year later I created my second domain with Earthlink when they were babies in 1996.  They had incredibly expensive hosting plans, but they were really good.  They provided super fast page loads when that was not the norm!

Then I set up my third domain and moved all the others over to SimpleNet.  I loved their philosophy of "A Big Pipe, Come and Drink With Us for Cheap, There’s More Than Enough for All" and they would increase your server processes if you asked nicely and your site would then really scream!  They were good, affordable and quick.  The people there were friends and friendly and they responded quickly to email inquiries.  Then SimpleNet was eaten by Broadcast.com and all the small-town friendliness was lost.  Broadcast.com was in turn eaten by Yahoo!.  Yahoo! ate Geocities.  All my sites were ultimately hosted by Geocities Pro (that was the FTP welcome message) when I logged into my Yahoo! Small Business Hosting account.   SimpleNet have recently been spit out by Yahoo! and it now appears they are on their own again with most of the original team in tow.

I am now on LunarPages and… so far so good.  I suppose if history repeats itself LunarPages will probably be eaten alive by some big hungry monolithic conglomerate and the world will go dark again!  That seems to be the bidnis plan of choice:  A smart company creates a large and loyal userbase by offering the world on a dime and then selling it all and cashing out the mint!  

If you have any “It Ate My Web Host” stories, please share them, won’t you?

Oh, and if you were to wager… for fun and unsalted peanuts only… who might eat LunarPages?

Best,

db

How about this, it is possible that Lunarpages itself might grow large and "eat" other smaller hosting companies yet maintain great service and prices. Think positively.  

Hi Leigh --  Yes, it looks like we shared "The Wild West" days of living with ISP and Web Hosts who would live, die and get eaten daily.  It snapped your neck to try and predict and then follow who would be around the table or who would be served next day.  I have been lucky that all my site hosts have been reputable.  None of them ever tried to hold my site hostage.  I have owned all my sites from day one.  I only moved because someone offered me a better deal for the dollar -- loyalty and longevity are important, but not at triple the price!     Do you remember dealing with Network Solutions when you had to "Ack" back any changes to your account?  What a nightmare!

Hi Danielle -- Hey, I like that and I hope LP do engorge a host of hosts!

Trey --  Yeah, Mindspring were great in their heyday.  They were fast and fun to work with and they had a brightness in the way they ran their site and supported their end users.  I don't remember MindVox.  I will have to look them up.  Today's www.mindvox.com doesn't look related to what you were discussing, eh?     Glad to know you don't think LP will be grilled and chewed by another Big Money Monster!

Hey Zen!

Right on about Mindspring being "it" way back!  

It's funny that after the "merger" with Earthlink, the Mindspirng HQ in Georgia was made the new HQ for the new Earthlink... but the mentality of innovation and the spirit of fun and learning died like a peach in a bucket when Earthlink took over all official MindSpring funcitons.

 

Yours,

db

Hi That --

I remember your site being held hostage when you wanted to move here.

How did that all finally work out from a stragetic POV?  At first you didn't think you were the domain registrant and then you found out you were?  Were you able to change the DNS yourself or did your old host have to let go first?

Best,

db

That is so strange.

Why do you think they unlocked it if they felt it belonged to them?  Many hosting services play that game:  "You host with us, but we own your domain if you leave."

Did you finally get your refund?

Best,

db

Very interesting!

I think you were lucky they unlocked you.  I know a lot of people in your position who are stuck.

Good to have you on here, laddie!    

Best,

db