Keep in mind that the step-by-step guides I just posted are not a catch-all, end-all solution for transferring providers.  It's just a bunch of ideas that I wanted to share, so perhaps you can get a better grip on all the steps involved in switching web hosting providers if you have to face this scenario yourself in the future.

Now to continue my saga, which I hope will help you to avoid some of the mistakes I made along the way...

Host # 2

After leaving ASPnix, I signed up with HostingFest, which was another low-priced host recommended to me by a colleague.  Unfortunately, I didn't ask enough questions at the time of the recommendation.  I was in a rush, since e-mail just completely stopped working for days.  If I took the time to ask more details, I would have found out that the recommendation came from a short-term experience.  Apparently, this person switched due to the fact that HostingFest didn't provide all the features he needed for his planned sites.  So, the few times he had to contact their support resulted in a satisfied customer.  I also should have asked a couple of other people whom he had recommended their services to.  Their experiences were pretty negative.  I also should have Googled them to do some backing research.  I would have seen a lot of very negative (as well as some positive) reviews.

The problems I had started a couple of days after I joined.  HF uses the same control panel (Helm -- which is quite popular for its ease of use), and the same mail server software (SmarterMail).  Well, all of a sudden, e-mail just completely stopped working.  At times we couldn't couldn't connect, but most of the time, we'd connect, but would see no e-mail.  I would normally at least see dozens of spam messages come through every few hours, but got absolutely nothing.  I opened several tickets with them, and the communication was even worse than ASPnix.

From what I was seeing, I had a hunch that there was a problem that was unique to SmarterMail, since, coincidentally, both ASPnix and HostingFest were having similar issues at around the same time.  I had noticed that in the prior few weeks, spam volume had increased a LOT, so I had a hunch that SmarterMail was not dealing with this well.  I even posted a detailed ticket explaining my hunch.  No response at all.  It wasn't until two days had past (and some snappy "be patient" responses, with no other explanation, had been sent back to me)  that a general posting in the "News" section of their support site was created.  This looked to be the very first news item EVER created on their support page, and I had a hunch that my comment about that is what prompted them to use it.  The item stated that it looked like SmarterMail was being overrun with large volumes of mail (hmmmmm, spam, I'm sure), and the single server they were using maxed out on the number of e-mails SmarterMail can handle for a single server.  So they were working on getting a new server.

Still, another day past, with no e-mail.  I couldn't wait any longer, so I switched again.  Although their web servers seemed extremely fast, without e-mail, that was basically of little use to me.  I wrote them asking for a full refund, since they didn't live up to their side of the uptime agreement.  I got a quick response back to that, stating that they'll give me a refund "when they have time".  Ok.  I understand.  They're focused on getting additional servers up.  But it again begs the question -- just how many people are working at your company?  My very strong hunch is two.  Again, you get what you pay for.  I can understand that to a point, but don't make crazy service-level promises on your pre-sale site if you know you can't deliver.

Later that day, they e-mailed me saying that they issued me a refund.  It has now been two weeks -- and still no refund on my credit card statement.  Almost time to issue a chargeback.

Host # 3

This was mainly my fault.  In my panicked haste, I signed up with Easy CGI, which started off very well, and the customer service seemed good.  I had researched about a dozen different hosting companies this time, so I thought I made the right choice.  The price was decent at $19.95 per month.  The control panel was a little kludgy, but I didn't expect to need to use it much after the initial setup.  It was when I started adding the second host that I realized my mistake.  Apparently, the reason why customer service was so good was because it was $19.95 per domain!  Ouch.  For some reason, I thought they allowed up to eight domains per account.  When I asked them about this, they didn't understand where I saw that.  I re-checked, and they were correct.  Nowhere did it mention more than one domain.

I must have gotten confused between all the different companies I was researching.  So the lesson here is -- take copious notes when doing comparative shopping.  Oops.

Host # 4

After some prodding by one of the users of one of the sites I was supporting, I tried GoDaddy.  I use GoDaddy for registering my domains, and I always liked them.  I think their site is WAY too loud and obnoxious, with way too much marketing, but the controls are fairly decent, and they seem to have their act together.  And the price was oh-so-right.  In light of their customer support, their pricing is excellent.  I had read some negatives about their customer support, which is why I bypassed them at first.  I also read about another negative, which I'll talk about shortly...

I did hit upon a few road blocks when setting up the sites; mainly with MS Access database support setup.  I actually had to change a site to DSN-less connections, but that was fairly minor.  I also had to change one site's root application to work under ASP.NET 2.0, because that is a site-wide setting.  I'm not crazy about the way I have to structure the folders under a single FTP login, either (and they only support a single FTP account), but even that was not a show stopper.

I must have spoken to customer service on the phone about eight times, totalling over two hours, and not only were they very friendly, helpful, and understandable, it appeared that they're one of the shrinking number of companies truly doing phone support from within the US.  Not that there's anything inherently wrong with outsourcing phone support, but I always feel a layer of mistrust when someone who is clearly not American claims his name is "John".  Please, people, if you're going to outsource your phone support, please allow Partha to be Partha.  Anyway, whenever someone didn't have an answer to my questions, he or she would actually let me know that they weren't sure of the answer, and were going to put me on hold for a few minutes to ask a co-worker.  That's another thing -- they were always quick to answer (the longest wait was about 12 minutes, and the recording told me how long the wait would be), and quick to return after putting me on hold.  They would have been great, except for one, huge issue...

They must have the most restrictive e-mail "blacklist" in the world!  As soon as I switched over, I received an average of maybe two spam messages per day!  And I normally received over 100.  And it appeared that I was getting all the normal e-mail I expected...at first.  Then I found out that my father tried e-mailing me, and I never got it.  He did a few more tests -- nothing.  I then had him e-mail me at my gmail account to make sure it wasn't his service, and I got those ok.  Now I was starting to worry what other e-mails I missed.  I called GoDaddy, and had the first, and only negative customer service experience with them.  I gave them my father's current IP address at their request, and they looked up their blacklist.  Yep.  The entire octet of his address was being blocked, because "someone once sent a bunch of spam from a "nearby" address."  Wha?!?  Ok...what do I need to do to get e-mail from my father? "Well, you can have him get a static IP address, and we can unblock that specific address."  My mouth was hanging open, speechless.  They were telling me to have my father, who knows nothing about IP addresses, and very little else about computers besides surfing the web, e-mailing, and doing a bit of Excel, to get, and PAY FOR a static IP address just so that he can e-mail me and my wife?  Insanity.  I asked to speak to a manager, and asked him if he were in my position, wouldn't he be upset?  He admitted he would, but stated that GoDaddy needs to save people from themselves (not in exactly those words, but some to that effect).  And that it was worth blocking some innocent e-mail to prevent spam from getting onto their servers.  After I claimed this was like throwing the baby out with the bathwater, he said he'd see what he could do about changing company policy (yeah, right), and said I should e-mail their "suggestion box", because they seriously consider all suggestions.  He even told me that one suggestion was implemented the next day.  Uh-huh.  Well, I informed him that I did a search on the Web, and a lot of other people have had similar experiences with their blacklist, going back well over a year ago, so if GoDaddy was serious about considering a policy change, I didn't believe it would happen.

Bye-bye GoDaddy.

Host # 5

Hello WebHost4Life.  This one burned me up more than all the others, because of their sneaky marketing techniques.  At this point, I was convinced that there would be no budget solution that I could depend upon.  So since I was mainly hosting ASP.NET sites, I based my search on strong support for IIS, SQL Server 2005, etc., with at least a bunch of positive reviews (expecting many negative ones, also).  With support for unlimited domains under a single decent price, WebHost4Life seemed like the ticket.  They should get a ticket!

I started by transferring a single domain, which worked out ok.  So I began with the next domain.  When it came time to setup e-mail accounts for this second domain, I was surprised with a message that if I wanted e-mail addresses under this second domain, I would have to pay an additional $10 per year.  Since I had six additional domains, that meant another $60.  But that wasn't the point.  In no place on their pre-sale pages did it make any mention at all of this additional cost.  So I started an online support chat with one of their "professionals" (more on why I quoted that word, later).  Since you can get a transcript of your online support session e-mailed to you, I'm tempted to post it here in its entirety, but I'm going to give them a bit of a break and pass.  Besides, I'm not totally sure about the legality of doing so.  Basically, the conversation went something like this...

Me: I'm confused.  I added a second domain, but I don't see how to create e-mail addresses for this second domain.

WH4L: For your added domain to have email account, there is a charge of $10.

Me: Are you serious?  There was nothing that mentioned that when I signed up.  If I switch my site, I'll lose all my e-mail accounts, and I have 7 sites. I see the DNS settings point to the domain for e-mail also. Does that mean I lose all my e-mail if I don't pay an extra $60?

WH4L: Hold on a minute...

Me: Look at this page on your site: http://www.webhost4life.com/hosting.asp. There is nothing about an additional charge -- it says "unlimit domains" and up to 100 e-mail addressed for the plan I signed up for (advanced).  I can't understand why I lose e-mail capability when switching my other domains.

WH4L: For added accounts having email, you need to pay $10.

Me: Where does it say that? If you are grabbing my other domains' MX records, I lose e-mail unless I pay what is effectively ransom.

WH4L: Yes, you need to pay $60 or can lose all your mail.

Me (my mouth, again, hanging down in shock): Where does it say that on http://www.webhost4life.com/hosting.asp? This is equivalent to holding my e-mail MX records hostage.

WH4L: Hold on...its not on the site, but you should find it on your control panel.

Me: But I only get to see that after I join and pay $$$. It's a hidden cost, and unethical.

WH4L: It's not a hidden cost, we do let the customere know before signup.

Me: Show me where, please.

WH4L: Login to your control panel >> domains >> domain name.

Me (in shock): Like I said, that is AFTER I join and pay. Look what you are telling me...to log into my account to see the hidden cost...that implies that I need to pay BEFORE I can login to my account and see that. Please show me where someone can read that on your public website before someone signs up, and then I'll know I made a mistake. If there is no place on your site where it states the extra $10 per domain charge for e-mail, then it is a hidden, unethical practice. If there is a place, then I'll admit my mistake and decide what to do next with my account.

WH4L: I dont think i can help you in this. I am just a level 1 tech. I don't have access to the servers or accounts. (And this is one of their "professionals"?)  I can just show you the things where it is.

Me: You have access to the public website, so show me where it is there. You don't need to be any level to show me that.

WH4L: As I told you, it is not on the site...

Me: Right -- so it is unethical and illegal and misleading... Can I please have the direct contact phone number of your manager?

WH4L: Please hold on a moment, I will check for it...You can call on the following number and ask for manager...(Tel) 888.306.3780, (Tel) 323.980.8281.

Me: That is the main support number where you are put on hold for an hour...I'm looking for the direct line to your manager...

Me (five minutes later): Hello?

WH4L: I don't have that. You can place a ticket and leave your number on that. Our manager will get back to you.

Me (getting angry): So, if you wanted to call your own boss, you would have to go through your general number? What's your name?

WH4L: It's (his name).

Me: What is your manager's name?

WH4L: Let me see if any manager is available at this moment. Please hold on a moment...

Me: Thank you, but I really want to speak to them on the phone.  It is very difficult to communicate through instant messaging.

WH4L: Yes, i can understand that...will it be fine if I provide you with his direct email? ceo@webhost4life.com

Me: It's not much better than IM, but if you have no choice and aren't allowed to give out his phone number, that will have to do.

WH4L: You can mail our manager at ceo@webhost4life.com.

Me: Ok, thank you...goodbye.

WH4L: Bye.

Well, I sent a detailed e-mail to the "CEO", but needless to say, I received no reply.

In my final post of this story, I'll talk about who I finally went with.

My Web Hosting Nightmares, Part 1 - Background
My Web Hosting Nightmares, Part 2 - Preparing for the Transfer
My Web Hosting Nightmares, Part 3 - Starting With a New Host 
My Web Hosting Nightmares, Part 4 - Completing the Transfer