crooked web hosts??

Hi All,

I have had about 4 new clients this month who know nothing about the internet or building websites trying to extricate themselves from what I call "template" driven webhosts--they were told they could design the web page themselves and then found out they couldn't because it required extensive knowledge of HTML or else they were told the staff would build it for them (at exhorbitant prices) and then they are suddenly too busy soon as they have paid for the service. These folks then hired my services to finish the job because what they wanted done couldn't be done on that site.  I then requested they move to my preferred host. One of them had to hire a lawyer to extricate his domain name and has written a story about his experience that is posted on my web site. 

The other is a non-profit org and can't afford a lawyer and is being given the run around and being told something that appears to me to be just another ploy to keep the domain name on their site. Here is what the current host site said to my new client:

-------
 > By the way, you guys do have the ability to change where your site is
 hosted, and still leave your domain on our DNS servers.  Just go to:
http://www.domain-name-disquised
 > Log in with your username and password.
 > Click on DNS.
 > Enter in whatever IP address they gave you for your website.  You may
need to ask them what your IP is.  Assign that to the "www" hostname, and
 you're set.  No domain transfer required
------

This appears to me to mean they would have to use an IP address as the URl which would then transfer to their site. But wouldn't this slow down the transfer of data. And MORE IMPORTANT--wouldn't search engines turn down this site for listing because of the transfer?

It appears to me these web hosts are being dishonest but I would just like to have this confirmed with someone with more experience in this matter.

Please write me offline as I'm on the digest.

take care
Lori
www.loriswebs.com

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