Now, why would I want to comment on the two top browsers in the entire world wide web? Because there are enough do-do-head-anti-microsoft users out there that believe microsoft is the anti-christ and we're just waiting to be raptured. I'm a web developer so I do have FireFox 2 (FF) installed for the purposes of testing my websites for compatibility. I primarily use Internet Explorer 7 (IE) as it is more commonly accepted and I believe just as feature rich as FF. My fellow programmer primarily uses FF and uses IE for testing, again, he's coming from a ddham background.

Because I want to be fair in my comparison of the two browsers, over the next two weeks starting today 6/18/07, I am going to use FireFox as my primary browser and use Internet Explorer for testing purposes only. I am clearing my thoughts of FF and am looking forward to using a new browser, looking forward to experience the greatest browser available. Who knows, I may switch permanently!

I will document my findings, both pros and cons, of FF. I will compare them against IE and give an honest assessment of the two browsers. I'm doing this for myself, not to make my statement in the technology industry. I have customers ask a lot what's the difference between FF and IE, I usually state that FF is for DDHAM users. My guess is that FF will operate with slight differences from IE but overall be just as good or maybe even a little better.

Stay tuned!

For about a year and a half now my company Delphi Technology (www.delphi-ts.com) has had a dedicated server hosted in Florida and we can't complain. We have about 30 accounts on it and the server runs great. We offer quality hosting, not cheap hosting. Our base package is $19.99 per month for 1GB storage space. All of our plans are customizable and we're willing to work out a hosting plan that fits your needs and budget (even if it’s less than $19.99/mnth). Let me rant about cheap hosting providers, specifically WebHost4Life.com (I use to use ReadyHosting.com with the similar complaints then went to WH4L, silly me). They're cheap, $4.99/mnth. I have about 6 customers still on WH4L and regret it. Fortunately these customers came to me while on wh4l so I am not responsible for their weeping and gnashing of teeth.

So, the complaints:

One customer had an issue when trying to view the site, the error was "Service Unavailable" Support said "...seems like someone was using a lot of resources within your application pool, so we reset the IIS within the server. Thanks." That worked, but then I wonder, what is preventing from happening again? I then mention "each site isn’t on its own app pool? Wouldn’t that be a wiser setup?" to which they replied "We can only have so many application pools within the server. So we cannot create over 100-200 application pool for each user; that will slow up the server more. Thanks." Good point, I bet it would, then BUY A NEW SERVER! But no, they are cheap hosting, so you get what you pay for! Delphi's hosting has individual application pools per website (even the SmarterTools have their own individual app pools) and I can guarantee that when we hit 40-50 websites we'll get another server, not sacrifice our customer's performance.

Several customers will randomly start receiving NDRs stating "Reason: Remote host said: 451 Blocked - see spamcop.com" or spamhaus.com, etc. Each time I have to initiate contact with the hosting company then a few hours later that issue will be resolved. This happens probably once a quarter at least.

Then we had some random SQL server issues (lack of connection), other email issues with forwarding, replying, DNS issues, ftp issues, "there appears to be a routing issue with our servers at the moment. Technicians are on site fixing the problem" type errors too. Then there's their control panel. Its an improvement over their old control panel (it now integrated with support) however still flaky. Randomly I'll get errors that my session has expired (right after logging in). I'll get some other random Errors, "please try again", etc.

Recently, I participate in the following thread... we're not the only people dealing with this: http://forums.aspdotnetstorefront.com/showthread.php?t=4546

In my own opinion, WebHost4Life.com is a great cheap hosting provider but they're cheap in their resources and server structure. I know the costs of hosting and can appreciate them trying to make a buck or two, but at the customer's expense? Not financial expense, but poor website and email performance. With all this said, if you're looking for a dirt cheap hosting provider, wh4l is it, and expect to get what you pay for. If you're looking for something for a personal website, go with wh4l. If you're looking to run your business through it, look somewhere else (like Delphi!) If you can spend a few more dollars, I'd be willing to work with you and get you running on our servers ;).

Thanks for the time to rant.