List of Website/Server Hosting Companies

[smash]

I've been trying to find a hosting company that doesn't have a ton of spammers on there networks.

I can't really trust the information provided by doing basic searches on the internet: As in Website Hosting Reviews by the countless annnoymous reviewers.

Everyone says they don't like spam and that they will stop it if they find a domain on there network that is spamming but if you look at the stats it just isn't true.

There are major webhosting sites that have known spammers on them. How can this be?

I'm thinking that there must be something I'm unaware of .

Does anyone know of a site that has ranked webhosting companys as it pertains to spam?

Thanks for your forum

[turetzsr]

I've been trying to find a hosting company that doesn't have a ton of spammers on there networks.

I can't really trust the information provided by doing basic searches on the internet: As in Website Hosting Reviews by the countless annnoymous reviewers.

Everyone says they don't like spam and that they will stop it if they find a domain on there network that is spamming but if you look at the stats it just isn't true.

There are major webhosting sites that have known spammers on them.  How can this be?

<snip>

20416[/snapback]

...My guess would be that they take action only AFTER they have been informed of an account that has been sending spam. IMHO that's reasonable, for the most part, since it's probably difficult or impossible for an e-mail or internet service provider to know beforehand whether a given subscriber is going to spam until s/he actually does. If you are referring to an ISP like Comcast, then it's often a matter of a subscriber connecting without sufficient security precautions, getting trojanned, then being reported for spammming to the ISP. That type of thing, it seems to me, is something the ISP could do something about before the fact but they may feel that it is too expensive for them to do that.

...Posts at Do ISPs terminate their SPAMing IP addresses? and MEDIA: Major ISP's declare war on zombies may be relevant....

[Jeff G.]

I would imagine that you would be satisfied if you hosted with a company which not only let its Abuse Desk personnel be heard vociferously fighting spam, but also staffed, funded, and empowered the Abuse Desk. I hear RCN used to be such a company; if AfterBurner is still there, it probably still is. Most of the other companies are probably too busy watching their checkbooks.

[DavidT]

Does anyone know of a site that has ranked webhosting companys as it pertains to spam?

No, but if you find one, please be sure to post it here, because this topic has come up several times in this forum, but there's never been a SINGLE useful reply posted to those threads. For example, here's one that's very similar to your request:

Suggestions for a good webhosting company

Sadly, that topic didn't result in any responses whatsoever. A somewhat related post, looking for very cheap, but anti-spam hosting:

Suggestions for a good webhosting company

didn't result in anything useful. And as for RCN as a web host...I'm sorry, but that's not particularly helpful, unless you're looking specifically for a $500/month managed dedicated server, because they're not really a web-hosting company...they're a connectivity ISP (dialup, broadband, etc.).

It would seem that the denizens here don't have any answers on this issue...but I'm very interested in finding the same information as you, smash, so let's Google it some (including in the newsgroups) and see what we can come up with. Perhaps we can actually post something here that will fill the existing void on this important topic.

One logical place to look/ask would be at www.webhostingtalk.com, but one problem with searching for this information is the dual use of "hat color" terminology. The anti-spam community uses colors from white to grey to black when referring to ISPs and web hosts, but "white hat" is also used when referring to a benign, helpful type of hacker, so it confounds the search attempts.

DT

[Wazoo]

Just my perspective ... it's hard to answer the "give me the ISP I need" type query because there is so much other stuff involved.

One ISP I use I'd recommend to anyone, but noting that one day they got all wrapped up in a SPEWS expansion ... so while nothing actually connected to this ISP, issues arose. They eventually moved to another whole IP block, but .... you have to factor this into any answer / suggestion.

Usually not stated in these queries;

traffic anticipated

Windows/*NIX/Sun/Other hosting OS desired/needed

Is FrontPage the only web-page-building app known to the user

Access (and availabilty of) what addition tools/apps/etc.

Storage needed for files/database/etc.

Redundancy needed, uptime, anti-DoS issues .....

This list goes on and on ... and as part of this is what makes each ISP / package different, what would one use as the model for "the answer" to each and every simple request for "the ISP that will meet my needs" ...???

[DavidT]

... it's hard to answer the "give me the ISP I need" type query because there is so much other stuff involved.

In general, true...but the real question at hand is not "which hosting company should I use" but actually:

"Does anyone know of a site that has ranked webhosting companys as it pertains to spam?"

That's a whole different question, and you'd think that someone out there who is trying to do something proactive about spamming would have put up and maintained such a list as a resource for those of us who'd like to locate our hosting accounts at companies with better records in this area.

... and as part of this is what makes each ISP / package different, what would one use as the model for "the answer" to each and every simple request for "the ISP that will meet my needs" ...???

Dunno...but as I mentioned, that's not the question at hand. The OP and I are looking for a resource where we can obtain "reputation" information about hosting companies.

DT

[Wazoo]

OK, point taken. Was sitting here thinking back to a biker credo ...

do a good deed, no one remembers

do a bad thing, no one forgets

And recalling the ways that some ISPs changed at wierd times .. change of ownership, money issues, change of personnel (posibly related to the previous items) .. and the thought of putting "your" name to a list of providers run by folks you don't know, and trying to figure out what thresholds one would set into place, then how to monitor those thresholds and possible justifications for the following decisions .. whew! .. what a job ... then worst case, the possible lawsuits from some ISP never heard of that found a lawyer willing to go in for damages because that ISP wasn't in a "good" list, therefore having its reputatin tarnished ....

Just trying to conceive how to collect and collate the data .. look for an ISP, look for "evidence" of spam spew, look for how (fast) it was handled, decide if the "lack of evidence" is due to a BOFH running the abuse desk or is it just that this ISP is so low-key that the spammers hadn't targeted it yet - so listing that ISP would only raise the flag and th spam problem would start there 10 minutes later ...???

[Jeff G.]

Webmasters.com was advertising the following on SpamCop's free parsing site:

Webmasters.com - Recommended for reliable and affordable web hosting. Offers 750MB disk space, 30GB data transfer, 300 POP3 mailboxes, spam filters, free shopping cart, webmaster tools, and more for only $9.95 per month.

I haven't tried their service.

[DavidT]

Webmasters.com was advertising the following on SpamCop's free parsing site...

While I support the idea of supporting SpamCop.com's advertisers, I'm not so sure that going with "webmasters.com" would be a good idea, because it would appear that they're actually located at Sago Networks in Florida (aka "sagonet" etc.) and in searching around, I've come up with a lot of less-than-exemplary information. YMMV

(for example, "art101" bopped into the Lounge the other day and posted this glowing review, so more research is probably needed)

DT

[Mikey]

Since I was one of the posters referenced above, I'll offer some more thoughts here. Completely useless thoughts but what the heck....

As one poster points out, many of these hosting companies are downstream from several tiers of ISPs. So while they may be as righteous as Mr. Haight himself, they are at the mercy of those losers above them. People like Spamhaus grab entire netblocks for their blacklist. Now, calm down. I know they make a huge effort to restrict these to only the bad guys. I use all those list myself on my server. I'm just saying that it wouldn't be unimaginable for some good guys to get swept up in the undertow.

I saw a post on here about Savvis. They used to be an excellent company but they recently bought out another ISP. And all that company's nasty baggage came with them. So now Savvis gets a black eye and are left to deal with blocks of losers along with all the other hassles that come with taking over another company.

Another thought. If I can paraphrase a theological argument:

Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.

Just because an ISP or a hosting company hasn't been known for spam doesn't mean a blackhat isn't going to sign up two days after you do and start spewing from your IP address.

Regarding my own experience, I started out with one fo the companies I found via the hosting company search sites and had a miserable experience. Two weeks later I got my money back. It had nothing to do with spam and its a long story.... I'm now happily working with a lifelong friend of mine who got his own T1 installed in his office. I'm fortunate to have such a friend, I wish all the whitehats could have their own T1.