Labs

WebFusion, like its sister company 123-reg, is part of the Pipex group. Its entry-level web-hosting deal, Fusion Starter, is one of the more expensive packages on test this month, but it is available in both Windows and Linux versions. This means you have support for either ASP and ASP.NET 1.1 with the Windows version, or PHP 4 and 5, CGI and Perl with Linux.

The MyServerWorld control panel is admirably easy to get to grips with. The design is the cleanest we have seen, with well-marked sections for your website, account and email. However, the Fusion Starter package lacks many of the bonus features

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that are found elsewhere. Apart from some marketing vouchers, there's little on offer: CGI scripts, website-creation tools, databases and pre-scripted implants such as blogs and photo albums are all absent. This will be of little concern to expert users, but if you want to create an exciting website without getting your hands dirty, this could be a significant factor. More limiting to both experts and novices alike is the lack of space and support for SQL databases.

Fusion Starter's email capabilities, though, are among the best here. The package provides 350 inboxes, which users can access through POP or IMAP, each with 100MB of storage and covered by virus and spam protection. The webmail tool in particular is professionally executed.

You can access your web space using either FTP or the online file manager. The online file manager allows you to edit script files directly for on-the-fly changes, but annoyingly it is clunky to use. The Windows version also allows FrontPage publishing for an extra £10 a year.

WebFusion's Fusion Starter is a good all-round bundle available in both Linux and Windows incarnations. It's not cheap, however, and lacks SQL support.