EQHost was established in 1999 and has grown to offer Web hosting services, end-to-end Internet solutions from the basic domain name registration to the last mile (application level) support.

“It is the provision of this last mile support as well as our 24 hours Live technical support with a quick four hour maximum response time which has given our service an edge over our competitors,” said Chief Operating Officer Alfred L.

“We respond in a timely fashion so that our clients are not hanging out there by themselves, pulling their hair out.  We’re accessible 24 hours a day, seven days a week with 24-hour online Live support and email services.”  The company has, in the past, received many odd hour calls from desperate clients to help solve their scripting problems, usually involving database, forms and object components.

The service offers Windows and Unix hosting with nine different hosting plans, designed wit scalability in mind: Budget Hosting $7 monthly for 40MB of disk space; Basic Hosting at $16 monthly for 100MB of disk space; Premium Hosting at $26.25 monthly for 150MB of disk space: Application Hosting at $66.25 monthly for 250MB of disk space: Virtual Private Server at $67 per month for 500MB of disk space and Java Servlet Hosting at $79.95 per month.  The other three solutions are Dedicated Hosting, Co-location Hosting and Email Hosting.

Every package includes basic firewall protection, anti-virus protection, unlimited POP3 email accounts and daily backup.  

EQHost is host to more than 2,000 domain sites and is currently servicing clients from over 35 countries.  As part of the organization's mission to fulfill its social responsibility, EQHost also provides free hosting to charity and non-profit organizations. 

The company claims to provide reliable service with 99.9 per cent uptime and fast connection to the Internet from its two data centers located at different locations. 

In addition, it’s company policy that server resource utilization should not exceed 65 per cent to ensure better uptime and server performance.

“Reliability and quick Internet access is important fro our clients.  About 30 per cent are multinational corporations,” said Alfred. “In this competitive Internet economy, every minute of downtime can cost thousands of dollars and cents in revenue, not to mention invaluable customer loyalty.  We like to think that our clients have made a wise business decision in choosing us based on our proven track record.  They can count on us on ensuring maximum security, uptime and reliability.”

A private limited company, Lim stressed that EQHost had not jumped into the Web hosting bandwagon to make a quick buck.  “We are committed to provide value for money services.  Our support team includes experienced Microsoft Certified Professionals and Linux experts to answer network or server related problems and Software Engineers to assist in troubleshooting scripting problems.

Elaborating on security, Alfred said the company practices daily data backup and that all servers are shielded with Intrusion Detection System and anti-virus protection software.  Basic security protection offered free for all hosting plans include packet filtering firewall and firewall to prevent network spoofing.  The company also provides additional security such as Managed Firewall services for application level protection, but this comes with a fee.  Like all other hosting companies we interviewed, its service agreement states that it will not host ay material that is in its sole discretion “judged as unlawful, threatening, pornographic, political, abusive, libelious or encourages conduct that would constitute a criminal offence, give rise to civil liability or otherwise violate any local, state national or international law.”  The company’s term of usage policy also specifies that clients caught for spamming activities will be suspended.