Web Hosting

[Iggy]

This doesn't really fit into this category but I didn't think it belonged anywhere else.

I am looking to host a personal Postnuke-based site that will mostly be used by friends and family. With the glut of hosting companies available it is hard to pick one. I have some questions about the whole deal that hopefully someone can answer.

How much bandwidth is enough?
I usually see between 2 and 5GB of monthly transfer included in these plans. I doubt I have a lot of traffic but is this enough?
Shared vs. Dedicated hosting
I think I can get away with shared hosting so long as the equipment and network are robust enough but again, I don't know that for a fact.


So does anyone have any suggestions? Any experiences with hosting companies, good or bad? Tips for finding the right host?

[batmanuel]

Shared hosting is the way to go if you want to get by cheaply. A dedicated server will cost you a bit more, but it is going to be (generally) much faster.

This server (dedicated to me and a few friends) is from http://www.venturesonline.com and I have been very impressed with their support and network availability. I think you can find cheaper shared plans, however.

One of my friends uses http://peopleschoiceinternet.com/ and has had good support with them as well, and it seems pretty quick. They have some cheap plans as well.

As for bandwidth, 5 gb should be plenty if you don't expect lots of traffic. VSF has been around 5 per month since we've been here...(which is a decent amount). just be careful about reading the small print on what happens if you go over--some places will terminate your account & email you to find out what you want to do (i.e., leave it down until next month or pay extra), some will just start charging you more... but look at how much they charge if you go over, and don't get fooled by places that price per MB overage (so it looks cheap) but bill you a GB at a time...

Ignus hosts someplace cheap, too, and has a massive amount of bandwidth and disk space... ignus?

[SauerKraut]

I usually see between 2 and 5GB of monthly transfer included in these plans. I doubt I have a lot of traffic but is this enough?


Provided you don't post anything the Fark people will get a hold of and post on their website, you should be ok.

:D



*wishful thinking, I know.

[ignus]

ya i use www.cirtexhosting.com , they have some of the cheapest rates ive seen for the level of quality and service you get. ive been using them for several months now, and they are very quick with activating your account, helping you w/ probs, etc, and even have an AIM account that is usually on for you to contact them. you can get a shared 250mb space/3gb transfer/month account for $25/yr, which is what i used to have before upgrading to the 1gb space/50gb transfer/month account for $10/month. the only downside is they only take paypal for payment, but thats not a problem for most people. seriously, check them out! (note: you'll have to install postnuke yourself)

[JTFazz]

I use Westhost and a friend of mine resells DuoServers here... http://hooperhosting.com/

[Iggy]

What's the word on resellers? Is it better to go with a company that owns and maintains their own equipment rather than dealing with a middle man?

[Iggy]

ya i use www.cirtexhosting.com , they have some of the cheapest rates ive seen for the level of quality and service you get. ive been using them for several months now, and they are very quick with activating your account, helping you w/ probs, etc, and even have an AIM account that is usually on for you to contact them. you can get a shared 250mb space/3gb transfer/month account for $25/yr, which is what i used to have before upgrading to the 1gb space/50gb transfer/month account for $10/month. the only downside is they only take paypal for payment, but thats not a problem for most people. seriously, check them out! (note: you'll have to install postnuke yourself)

Nice prices. Installing myself is actually a plus IMO. That and the fact they are located in Scranton, PA is a plus for me. This company definitely goes on the short list.

[ignus]

ive used about 7 or 8 different hosts in the last few years iggy, and cirtex has been the best. a huge bonus is that the night i first signed up my account, they contacted me on AIM like 20 minutes later and set it up and activated it for me right there.

[Iggy]

Yeah, it looked pretty good after reviewing about 100 hosts in the last 2 days. I signed up for the standard package (550MB storage, 9GB/mo transfer, 25 sub-domains, etc). I'll try it for a month and if I like it I will go for the full year. All things considered, $4.99/mo for citrexhosting and $8.95/yr for domain registration at GoDaddy is pretty cheap to get a site up. Thanks for the info ignus! 8)

[ignus]

=] did u put me as refferer? i dunno what that does, but maybe ill get brownie points! :lol:

[Iggy]

=] did u put me as refferer? i dunno what that does, but maybe ill get brownie points! :lol:

I'll check with the support staff to see how I can put in the good word for you. :)

[Chairman_Kaga]

I'm sort of looking too.

I like my provider, just could use a little more disk space.

Anyway, just found this one. Seems to rank pretty high in customer service but those webhost review sites are suspect. Pretty easy for a web hosting service to put up a few of those. :)

http://www.ixwebhosting.com/pg.info.dspUnixHosting

Delio
2.5GB space
20GB transfer
Free domain registration as long as you're hosting with them
12.99/month.

OR
1.5GB space
10GB transfer
Free domain, etc...
6.99/month

They have other plans to but those are the two I'm considering.

http://www.thehostingchart.com/ourreview1.html

Ah, NM. Been surfing/searching while typing this in.

The provider I'm currently using is kicking a$$. Guess it may pay to only have upped for 6 months. :)


http://smartconsumers.infinology.com/secrethosting.html?AID=9237606&PID=1367560


Yikes.

9GB space
50GB transfer
registered domain name, etc...

$7


FWIW - that infinology site is where I've been hosting the patch downloads, goneboating.net and recipes.goneboating.net. So many of you have already tested the connection speeds and such.

They also have PHP pre-installed for you. You also have windows option if you want to use ASP pages or Access databases.


Renewing now (Mine comes up March 6th anyway).

[ignus]

who doesnt have php preinstalled anymore?

[Chairman_Kaga]

who doesnt have php preinstalled anymore?

Bat. :roll:


Who cares? $8 for 9GB space on a windows server so my Recipe database ASP page may work after all. hehehehehehehehehehehe