InvisibastardDotCom

Welcome to part 2 of Finding A Good Webhost. To sum up the story thus far:

Boy meets host, host lets boy down. Boy leaves host for prettier new host, only to find her completely unavailable. Boy then finds the webhost of his dreams and lives happily ever after.

As I mentioned earlier, I had read good things about Fused Network. The positive things I read were striking in their gushing praise. Nervously I signed up for the service. Pricing was attractive. Not the cheapest, but I wasn’t looking for the cheapest. I signed up for the Level 4 shared Web Hosting Package, giving me 5 Gigs of storage, 1 gig Transfer, 1000 email accounts, 500 subdomains, 30 MySQL DB’s, 50 FTP accounts and Free Setup. These numbers were more than sufficient for me, and I liked that Fused did not play the “Unlimited Diskspace/Bandwith” marketing game. The numbers are real numbers with no surprises.

Sign up was easy, and soon after phone verification I received an email with all of my relevant account information. David at Fused Network handled transferring my sites and nameservers to Fused. He advised me on how to transfer the domains and gave me a timetable of what to expect. By this point, I was so thrilled with the service that I purchased the domains from Fused. I had zero downtime through the transfer. Fused Network handled everything, and it went very well.

Fused Network uses cPanel, with a LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP) powered backed running the latest versions of the LAMP stack. I love that their systems are “primarily 100% open source powered” since I have a strong interest in Open Source. Free nightly backups are included. As far as the technical aspects go, this link will go a lot farther than my parroting it. Fused’s offerings are solid.

Where Fused Network really shines is in support. I have a customer service background, and pride myself on being someone that would do whatever it took to get a job done for a customer. David and Fused Network seem to have the same philosophy. Any support ticket I have filed has been answered almost immediately. The site claims their average response time is three minutes, and I can vouch for that. Communication is excellent. Any time Fused has a problem, I am informed and kept up to date. Early in December they ran into a forty-eight hour instability problem that didn’t affect me, the emails came constantly throughout it. Once it was solved, a credit was offered to anyone that had suffered even one cent in lost revenue. A status blog was set up in the event of any future problems. The professionalism exhibited during what must have been a difficult time was inspiring. It reaffirmed my choice was the correct one. If you have had bad or adequate web hosting, you honestly will not believe how you are treated at Fused Network. The email and ticket support systems work so well I haven’t had to use the 24×7 phone support.

My experience with Fused Network has been extremely positive. I’ve been dying to get the word out. I have no problem recommending something I am happy with, and love to advocate great things. Fused Network is special. It is rare to get this level of service this day and age. If you are looking for a web host, look no further.

In Part 1 of this review, I said you can’t really trust positive reviews because a lot of times the author has an affiliate program set up, where they get money based on someone signing up. In full disclosure, I have an affiliate program with Fused Network. There is one big difference, though. Fused gives you the opportunity to donate any earnings you have to the charity of your choice. Any revenue I earn based on this review will be donated to charity. This is based on Fused Network’s outstanding example. I’d like to share an email I received this month. It highlights what I like so much about Fused Network and David. This letter is a perfect example of what is so great about working with them, and sets a great example to follow.

The email:

The Biggest Holiday Giveaway ever by Fused Network

It’s the season of giving and with the snow plastering the ground, the weather outside being frightful and hibernating in our offices being so delightful (although let’s avoid starting a warm fire with the carpet).. it’s time to have the biggest holiday giveaway ever!

Now, I know what you may be thinking.
“But David, I’ve already got everything I want by hosting with Fused Network. You’ve satisfied all my corporal needs!”

Perfect then, we’ll give it to someone else!

The Biggest Holiday Giveaway ever:
During the month of December, Fused Network will be donating 100% of our revenue to the charities of your choice. All new accounts that are signed up will have the opportunity to select a charity of their choice. We’ve been absolutely blessed every day of this year so far so it’s our chance to give back.

It isn’t often that we get to change the world. Sure, we offer great web hosting and from the testimonials we’ve received there’s an impact we make in others lives but it’s simply not enough. As a show of our gratitude, we’re giving you the chance to give back to those charities that have made a difference in your lives, the lives of others & are genuinely making the world a better place.

So how does it work?
Well, it’s fairly simple in concept. Any new accounts signed up between now & December 31st will have the opportunity to fill in a ‘Charity’ field. Enter the charity of your choice in the field and we’ll take care of the rest. Daily, we’ll be calculating the totals on our blog & even interviewing different users about the charities they’ve selected.

Of course, we like to put our money where our mouths are so all of the revenue that isn’t from new signups is being donated directly to the Salvation Army. If a user forgets to select a charity, that’s where it will go as well. We see them in Downtown Toronto feeding the homeless daily and I’ve watched them time & time again make sacrifices for others: Now that’s what I like to see

More information regarding the ‘Biggest Holiday Giveaway’ ever will be available on the giveaway page here:
http://www.fusednetwork.com/give.php

Be sure to tell your friends, family, co-workers & even your enemies.
It’s a season of giving. Let’s give wholeheartedly.

If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to contact me!
Have a jolly, jolly Christmas..