Still Point

For all my fellow expatriates in China trying to update web sites, post blog entries, or simply transfer files back home:

I just switched my hosting to Media Temple from Dreamhost, and I couldn’t be happier. I would say:

- connection times
- initialization times
- raw up and down transfer times

are a minimum of 20-40x faster that Dreamhost.

Literally, I just FTP’d 50 imagines down in a matter of seconds, and uploaded them back in almost the same time (during a site update). Dreamhost, it would clog around for 10-20 seconds, reading folders, initializing, then it was start putting along at 3k to 5k per second. It would take anywhere from 5 to 15 minutes.

If you were like me, you just thought it was “The Great China Firewall” in action. Turns out, it’s just substandard service from Dreamhost. I regret not switching when my brother did a year ago. The switch was seamless, Media Temple picks up the phone on the first ring for support, Wordpress blog transfers are a easy, it’s fast(!), and the list goes on.

If it makes any differences, I’m in the Yunnan province. Perhaps other provinces are experiencing different things. Also, it should be noted that when the internet was down in China because of the Taiwan earthquake, my Dreamhost sites were the last to come back online (by weeks, not days).

Jusy FYI, this is not an ad, just advise. I think Dreamhost “By The Employees” approach isn’t working anymore.

Update: After more use and evaluation… It’s lightening fast! I feel duped by Dreamhost!