We initially started with two TruFlex dedicated servers, plus our own switch and firewall. After a couple of years, we added a third server. Our configuration was a little unusual but not especially complex.

Our servers were in the Chicago data center, but TruFlex support was run by a company called PowerMedium that Hostway bought, and these engineers were in Tampa, FL.

We had significant and ongoing problems with support. It sometimes took days to get a response to questions and then the responses were often incoherent and illogical and we'd have to start all over again. Support requests got lost between Chicago and Tampa, and there were certain things that Tampa engineers could not work on that had to go back to Chicago. We had standing orders that our servers were never to be rebooted at certain times but engineers repeatedly ignored these orders. When we started processing emails through our system, sometimes tens of thousands per day, they never could get the firewall properly configured.

If you're a smaller organization with shared hosting needs or a single dedicated server, or a very large company with highly specialized needs that can afford dedicated techs, you're probably OK. But if you're in between these extremes, with multiple servers and some unusual setup issues, I don't recommend Hostway at all.