new user, very happy

Wanted to post my experience for those folks coming along looking for a new hosting provider...

I'm brand new to Dreamhost, a dedicated server customer. It took a little longer than I hoped to get the server up and running, but it's up now, and it took me just short of an hour to transfer a decently sized site to my new server.

In my little time with DH, I've been extremely impressed. Sales has been really friendly and accommodating (thanks, Brett!!). Getting my site set up was a breeze. As a long time *nix admin, I was amazed by how nicely the system is set up. And anything I had questions about (um, where's cgi-bin directory?) I just went to the Knowledge Base and did a search (turns out DH has set it up so you can put cgi files anywhere--what a novelty).

Thanks, DH. And to anyone reading this wondering if you should switch to Dreamhost: YES.

I'm glad that someone is happy.

I've been with DreamHost about 3 years, and am about to switch. Over the past 2 months they've been plagued with email and MySQL problems. Just the other day something went haywire with the apache configuration for my sites, downtime of over 12 hours. Total downtime for services over the last 2 months has exceeded 36 hours.

Support tickets? Average response time of about 12 hours. I have one at nine hours and counting at this moment. I am running about a dozen sites and have a good idea of what I'm doing, so these are not frivolous or unnecessary requests.

I'm evaluating other solutions now, learned that the cheapest is not necessarily the best, and "fanatical support" is in the opinion of the fanatic. Best of luck to you either way!

And this started off as such a happy thread too...

Well, for the record, I'm a DreamHost customer, and I plan on remaining a DreamHost customer because I am pleased with the quality of support that I have received in the past.

After having to make three host moves six months, I'm constantly evaluating other options. For another site I'm about to take over as admin, I have to say that the host they've been with has a very responsive support staff. But all the responsiveness in the world doesn't matter if they don't understand what you need, in this case the transfer of an account to another webuser.

I know just enough about *nix to be able to set up scripts and databases and to know when to call for help without constantly crying wolf. I've yet to confuse the DH staff about what's happening or what I need. And I've yet to be left with the sense that I know more about server admin than the person handling my ticket. I've come to the unfortunate conclusion that that combination is rare in hosting companies.

Add in that DH is willing to give me the access I need to handle most problems myself, and I'm very happy here.

The ticket I previously mentioned is now at 22 hours, 42 minutes. Thank god it's not a site outage, or I'd be pulling my hair out around now....

I am quite happy with DH. I've been through quite a few web hosts, and thus far DH is the best I've come across. I've been a DH customer for about 6 months.
Sure, there are some problems, but I've never seen a host that didn't at one time or another. The difference here is that the problems are addressed quickly, and they let us know what's up.
I really like the fact that everything's out in the open here. No surprise charges on my bill, etc...
I feel very "comfortable" here, for lack of a better word. I believe they are a very competent, first class host, and I'm happy I found them. :)

DreamHost is the first US hosting provider I have tried. Before that, I have been with several Danish hosting providers (because I live in Copenhagen, Denmark). In one sentence, DreamHost is the only host I would ever recommend to others!

I feel treated fairly here, very fairly. There's no nonsense about hiding stuff from the customers, about not letting customers leave(!) if they feel like it, about not getting advanced or even basic features, and so on. DreamHost just has what you need, built-in at no extra cost. (Some other providers charge you for mail aliases! Forget about one-click discussion board installations or even a web panel at all.)

Sure, there have been a few issues with DH, but it's nothing compared to the rest of them. And all of these issues have been announced honestly and openly, and resolved with dedication. If DH keeps up this level of service, I'll be a customer forever.

TorbenGB

Hmm. I've been trying to switch my email to my microsoft exchange server for 2 weeks now, can't call anyone (no contact #) and even after paying $80 for an upgrade specifically for callback service, I still haven't gotten anyone on the phone. Getting ready to start week #3 without email.
Sorry to rain on the parade, but this really sucks.

What did you pay $80 for? Even the $20/month plan includes callbacks.

What kind of a problem are you having with your Exchange server anyway? If you've problems with Dreamhost's domain name resolution and you're not being helped, just sign up for a free account at zoneedit.com and point your nameservers there. Then you'll have full control of your domain's DNS records.