Door County Networking has been formally online since 1999, although
its founder has been online since before the internet was called
"the internet."
"We waited in BBS queues for hours for the chance to chat and post on
codgy text systems," reminisced DCN founder Karin Hankwitz
in a recent interview.
Long before her days of hosting
other people's
websites, she bounced from web host to web host, trying to find a good match
of services for a decent price. "I was upset about paying $75/month," she
admitted. "Not for what I was -- or rather, wasn't -- getting."
Along the way she learned what to look for, and what to
avoid, in a web host. Her frustrations came to a head when her web host
went offline due
to a "technical problem" and pulled her site and e-mail down for
three weeks straddling the Christmas season. "It was devastating," she
said.
Karin's biggest beef is with billing. "I have seen it all and
I can't stand the fraud out there. I want my customers to know that I've
been
through it all, and they don't ever have to worry about being treated
poorly. I don't want people to go through what I went through."
She has moved away from many dishonest web
hosts and built her own web hosting business in Door County Networking.
DCN manages its own servers in redundant hand-picked data centers and networks.
"We are not a reseller for another company," she explained
recently. "We administer our own servers from the ground-up. If something
goes wrong, our team is on the job. We don't have to climb someone else's
support queue to get a simple issue repaired, make a modification, or complete
security upgrades. We are the 'real McCoy.'"
Door County Networking today serves countless small businesses,
professionals, charitable organizations, and hobbyists. "I
took what I learned from these other bad companies, and built the ultimate
business
model of
what
I wanted, from a customer standpoint. Then I implemented it. As a result,
our service is reliable, ethical, and responsive. Our service is everything
I wanted and had a hard time finding."
Customers are invited to contact company founder Ms. Hankwitz
via e-mail at any time.
