About Netports

Netports is an internet technology and online infrastructure service provider with core principal competencies in providing retail and wholesale web hosting solutions to the Australian consumer and business communities.

Photo: Peter Thwaites founder of Netports during the 2004 Telstra Country Wide Media Awards ceremony held in Cairns, North Queensland.

Founded by Peter Thwaites in 1999, Netports is a 100% Australian owned business which has grown to established itself as a premium provider of webhosting and associated services to the Australian retail and wholesale sectors. Netports is a 100% debt free business - servicing debt is something Netports does not have to be concerned with. At the retail level Netports offers a comprehensive range of website hosting services designed to meet a multitude of requirements and budgets. We back all our hosting services with real person 24x7x365 support available either directly online through our helpdesk or by phone. At the wholesale level Netports hosting services are the backbone behind successful webmasters, web development and webhosting businesses all over Australia. Our network of wholesale customers are providing hosting services that deliver significant advantages not only for themselves but also for their own customers within the crowded and competitive world of the internet.

Our locations

The Netports Group is managed out of Brisbane and Cairns. Sales and support for the hosting division is shared between Sydney, Brisbane and Cairns. The billing and accounting department of Netports and centre of operations is located in Brisbane.

Netports is 100% Australian owned. Netports utilise datacenters in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and California to deliver the highest possible quality across our range of core product and service offerings.

When you choose Netports to provide a service, you are dealing with Australians in Australia.

Quality & affordability

Netports has built a reputation on providing quality services that deliver distinct advantages which include having staff available 24/7 to back all services with technical support, and yes, this includes being available to you over the phone if you need us.

We do not have two story office blocks in every state of Australia nor do we have a fleet of company cars. And most important of all we are not locked into costly hosting infrastructure ownership that would otherwise severly limit and restrict hardware and service upgrades and improvements.

Subsequently Netports is able to continually invest greater proportions of its core revenue directly towards improving the quality of our services and the regular upgrading of hosting infrastructure for the benefit of our existing and future customers.

The end result of this lean business model provides Netports with three very significant capabilities:

• Maintain an aggressive upgrading schedule
  Netports regularly upgrades hosting infrastructures including complete servers to ensure its customers continually enjoy being hosted from equipment and network frameworks that are representative of being within the top 20% most powerful mainstream hosting environments in the world today.
  
  
• Improved efficiencies
  Our business model enables prompt results focussed service management. From customer support where we are available 24/7 to service technical management. The ability to engage in close and direct communication with our customers, no matter what time of day or night, is a key component in ensuring quality. If something doesn't look right at 2:30 a.m. early Sunday morning you can pick up the phone and speak with a Netports representative - not many other hosting operations support their customers to that level.
  
  
• Low Overhead Footprint = Corporate Protection
  A low overhead footprint brings with it insurmountable advantages that also includes financial future-proofing. Netports is not exposed to the pitfalls of servicing debt, we have been operating since 1999 and with each passing year our growth has been earned and paid for up front. Netports is here to stay.
  
  

You would be forgiven for thinking there are more webhosts than grains of sand on the nearest beach. It can be difficult to work out what is what in the world of hosting. Professional externally developed websites accompanied by claims of huge business sizes with countless thousands of customers and 100%+ uptime seem to be the norm for many webhosts trying to lure customers. So here are some facts about Netports ...

As at July 1, 2009 we have under 2,700 direct retail hosting customers and under 390 Reseller/VPS/Hybrid and dedicated server clients. The fact is we are not a huge operation, certainly not in the same league as some of the major corporate ISP's in Australia.

We believe our size provides countless operational advantages that more than contribute to our ability to deliver and sustain a significantly higher quality service. We do not harbor any desire to become a conglomerate, in fact quite the opposite.

There are cheaper hosting alternatives

Netports does not hide the fact that we do not undertake the usual cost cutting exercises that are currently rife within the hosting industry. In fact our hosting business model is the exact opposite. We believe powerful and reliable web hosting and the real-world advantages it delivers are now more important than ever to the success of any internet presence.

We of course could effortlessly slash our costs by considerable margins if we simply doubled or tripled the number of hosting accounts we position on a given server, or moved our hosting from powerful enterprise class dedicated servers to Virtual Private Servers (VPS). But if we did any of this we would be no different to the bulk of hosting companies out there. Yes, we could then offer very cheap hosting and attract a swathe of new customers but the idea our customers websites may be starved and crippled of resources is not what we are about. Its not what the Netports brand represents.

Despite what some glossy and colourful websites will tell you, there is actually a direct relationship between cost and quality. While we do come reasonably close to being amongst the least expensive web hosts in Australia the truth is we are not the cheapest. If you want the absolute cheapest website hosting then you're looking at the wrong website.

No 'gimmicks', promotions or specials

While many other webhosts may rely on super cheap prices, fantastic looking externally developed websites and service gimmicks to gain attention and business, Netports prefers to rely on our existing customer base spreading the word about their experiences with us.

We have long held the belief that there is no more powerful advertising than a recommendation from a hosting customer who is having their expectations met every minute of every day, month after month. We appreciate the business of each and every customer, these are the people and businesses who have placed their trust in Netports in the first place, and accordingly, this is where we channel all our efforts in every possible respect.