POD For You

[kayecee]

This question keeps getting asked over and over.... where do I get hosting?

First of all, I always recommend that you keep your domain registrations seperate from your hosting. If a hosting company goes down, they can take your name with it and it can be a pain to get it back. If it's registered somewhere else though, you can quickly grab another hosting company and recreate your site with any backups you have on hand. That being said, if your hosting company offers a free domain name when you sign up, grab it.... when it comes up for renewal, you can transfer it to another registrar fairly easily....

The hosting you choose will actually depend on what you want to do. IF you just want a simple website that will probably not get a crushing ton of traffic:

GoDaddy- well known name.... also offers everything from basic hosting to dedicated servers.... constantly runs specials.... save money by purchasing hosting by the year....

IF you are going to host multiple domains or pull major traffic, forget GoDaddy! I'd go with one of the following:

Blue Host- This is the host that I'm in the process of moving my sites to..... their services seem comparable to Dreamhost... lots of bandwith and storage... able to host multiple domains..... free domain name... Site Builder..... autoresponder....

BlueHost has a LOT of bells and whistles... comparing them against Dreamhost- IF I were going to choose again today, I might go with BlueHost instead of Dreamhost..... I like bells and whistles....

ThinkHost- Now this is an interesting host that's been in business since 1999. I found this company while browsing a forum today. They also offer a lot of bells and whistles like hosting multiple domains. What's so unique about them? They promote themselves as earth-friendly web hosting services. Not only are they carbon neutral (powered by wind and air) but they'll plant a tree in your honor if you join them! If you're concerned about the environment and want to support green companies, you might want to check this company out. (added 7-30)


*Note: Affiliate links and coupons above.

Edited to remove Dreamhost and Red Shoe and outdated coupon

[Mayhem]

i just wanted to suggest http://www.interxstream.com/ in addition to your list.

i've been with them since they were a dood sitting in his parents' basement... i have the triple domain package which is nice though i really need like a ten domain package after the big CP bomb lol.

anyhoo, they're cheap, you can do anything pretty much on their websites, big limits, never seem to be down, blah blah. And I likes 'em.

[kayecee]

Thanks Mayhem... they look pretty good too, but I've never heard of them before... looking at the services they offer, they do have a lot of bells and whistles...

the only thing I do note, however.... if anyone is going to host multiple domains, even the straight yearly DH plan without a coupon will be cheaper than the $14.95 a month for a limit of 10 domains.... and the DH plan offers unlimited domain hosting so anyone who is looking at doing several sites may be better off with DH or BH.....

if they're just going to do a few sites, that one looks like it has a pretty good bang for the buck.... but you never know what the future is going to hold.... a few years ago, I wouldn't have thought I'd have 50 domain names that I'm currently builiding out... so whichever plan anyone goes with, make sure you think ahead to the future....

[tex]

I've been using 1&1.com every since they came to the US. They offered a developers account free for 3 years as an incentive to get their foot in the market. It was limited to 1 account per customer but I somehow ended up with 3 accounts.

I run about 20 websites off of the 3 accounts in addition to hosting lots of photos and files. My son, the computer geek, also uses them for his websites and he's a lot more particular then I am. I've been satisfied with them for the most part since I still have all 3 accounts.

I'm not sure how competitive they are now, but you might want to check them out.

[brainlint]

I use 1and1, also.  I've never had a problem with them, and I have about 10 domains going with them. 

[BarbD]

So, as a  and for the benefit of others, how much traffic = bandwith?

I mean, for a simple web site (not too many pics, not anything "hard" on the servers, etc.) when I see hundreds of MB bandwith or a few dozen GB bandwith, what am I looking at traffic wise? Would that equal a few hundred pageloads? A few thousand?

[BarbD]

'Kay, I don't know how this one sizes up. But I found this one:

http://www.000webhost.com/

It's free. And the cheapskate in me says "YEAH" while the logical person in me says, "Wait, why"

But on their list of features, it sounds pretty darn good. So, can someone take a look and tell me what they think? And if anyone uses them, it be great to have some feedback, good or bad. Especially bad.

[tex]

Barb,

I'm a little leary of anything that is free because it usually isn't but I did get 3 years free from 1&1 so sometimes it does work out. I took a look and it does look like these guys have all of the basics. Just to see what would happen, I signed up for a test account.

From the time I clicked the "I agree" button through setting up a template website was a total of just under 3 minutes. You can see my great new 3 minute website at

http://www.jpsmock.net76.net/

Anyway it seems to work and my computer hasn't blown up or anything. I don't need another host, so I'll probably just cancel it.

I can't see how it would hurt you to sign up and play with it. If you don't see it working for you, you can always cancel. They only ask for a name and an email address. I would use a not so important email address just in case, but that's just the way I think.

[kayecee]

I.... dun.....no.... bout that....

It depends.... the features of that look really, really good for free.... you can use your own domain.... not so bad... I checked a review site and it says that it has an avarage uptime of 99.932%.... it also gives nomonthlyfees.com and thinkhost.com as comparable sites so I'd check them out too....

BUT I normally tell people to steer away from free sites....

I have a few scattered around and I know some of the big dogs do that too... my free sites are very simple sites whose sole purpose is to give link love and funnel a smattering of traffic to my "real" sites.... if the company they were hosted on were to go belly up tomorrow, meh.... no big loss....

If POD For You or some of my nicer affiliate sites were to disappear tomorrow, I'd have a freakin' heart attack....

So it'll all depend on you..... if you're just going to throw up a site that you don't care one whit whether or not it's there tomorrow, I say go for it.....

If you're going to put a lot of blood, sweat, and tears into a site, I'd say stick with a paid account at a reputable company.....

If I went with 000, I would definitely use my own domain name.... when a customer looks at a domain name like http://www.myshopname.net76.net/ they automatically think, "This company is so bad that they can't even afford a $10 domain name...." I wouldn't pull out my wallet for a company with an address like that, would you? Having your own address is much better in a customer's eyes....

[BarbD]

Thanks Kayecee and tex. I am always a little leary of "free" things as well. Don't get me started of how my mother loves the "Look it's free" things on the 'net. So, I'm prone to think, free = not free or at least a pain in the rear. You guys confirmed what I was thinking. So, perhaps, for now, I can use it as a blog and (as Kayecee said) some little sites to show my site some lovin.

I anticipate that I'll spend quite a bit of time creating and managing my site(s) and I'm really not interested in breaking it all to pieces or losing it a few months in.

Thanks again.

[tex]

I agree with Kayecee, you are always better off with a paid account especially since the free accounts don't usually offer much in the way of tech support. And yes, don't use the tacky myshopname.net76.net name...domain names are pretty cheap right now. The free account may be good to play with while you are figuring out what you want to do. If you put something together that you like, you can always download the files and transfer the site to a paying account later.

Even if you go with a paid account at a reputable company, don't rely totally on them to protect your files...backup everything...you never know what might happen. I keep and edit all of my files on my local machine and then upload them to the remote server so I always have a local copy of the files. All of my local website files are included in my nightly computer onsite and offsite backup.

Also don't forget to regularly download any writable remote files such as config files that are changed by a script. And backup any remote databases. Put them all with you local files so they will be backed up also.

The chances are you will never need all of those backups, but the one time you do, all of that trouble you went to will seem minimal.

[BarbD]

Good reminder tex thanks! Yeah, anything valuable, I usually have three backups -- one on the 'puter, one on a disk and one on paper. I had my 'puter crash hard before, so I learned my lesson the hard way. Luckily, after a bit (okay, a LOT of work) I was able to salvage most of my stuff. But I do keep back ups... which reminds me, I need to make some back up copies of my recent images!

[kayecee]

Thanks for the tips Tex! Those are great!

Another thing I do.... if I have anything that I don't want to lose in a computer crash, I upload and email it to myself... my email is sorted out into folders and I keep everything organized....

[kayecee]

I added ThinkHost today. I thought these guys look pretty cool for anyone who wants to host a lot of domains AND be eco-friendly at the same time.

[BarbD]

Geeky tree hugger in my likes Thinkhost!  Wonder if there's a set up fee. Can't find that. I see there are different payment options (6 months, year, etc.), but I can't seem to find if there is a set up fee as well.

[kayecee]

I don't see a set-up fee.... when I click to create an account, there is no mention of a set-up fee, so I'm assuming there's not one.....

Even though they don't plant a tree in your honor, I know that Dreamhost is also carbon neutral....

[kayecee]

I found and added a $25 coupon for ThinkHost in my original post.

[UncleFrog]

I've been using BlueHost and have liked what I've seen so far.  The ability to get multiple domain names hosted on the same hosting package (like at DH) is really great.  I'm not sure that I've seen any coupons.  Perhaps they're in and around somewhere.

[kayecee]

I looked for one in my affiliate admin area Froggy.... I don't see one.... That doesn't mean that they don't exist.... I'll look some more... if I find one, I'll holla...

[RobertPlantFan]

Kayecee, you were talking about changing hosts in another thread and it inspired me to put in a plug here for the host that I use for my fansite:
http://www.ace-host.net/
They're fantastic. Their uptime claims are absolutely true. In 3 years I've been down probably a total of 2 hours and most of that was 15 minutes here or there at 4am. Any time I have to contact them about something, they respond within 15 minutes, no matter what time of day. And they even help me out with installations that have nothing to do with them--like trouble shooting my gallery program and then waggishly adding some funny pics of RP to it.

Over the last month, I've been working on a spinoff of my fan site which I decided to host on Dreamhost since I have all that space there and don't plan to drop them at this point. Running the two side by side, Dreamhost runs about 25 percent slower than Ace Host. Not to mention that Dreamhost's new stance on mandatory upgrade of your installations kind of put me off.  I upgrade, but at MY convenience, not my hosts.

AceHost has multiple hosting and gobs of bandwidth. Their basic plan has 500gb of space but you can add extra space for a small amount. I have some extra add ons that I bought (unlimited databases) so my yearly fee with them is 89 and that includes the domain fee of 9.95.

[kayecee]

Thanks RPF.... I checked them out and they look pretty good.

I've modded my original post because of my continual problems with Dreamhost. I won't be renewing my hosting services with them in March.

[BGryphon]

I also use Ace-host - have since December of 2006. Very very little down time- once or twice with DDoS attacks that they stopped very quickly. Incredibly fast, helpful and friendly tech and c/s. I am an affiliate so there's a link at DigitalGryphon.com - but no coupons.

I started with a different package, so I have "only" 20 domains (10 real. 10 pointer-only) - they constantly upgrade their plans to be competitive, so you probably get more now.

[kayecee]

I joined their affiliate program too, but haven't added the URL in the first post yet. I also need to go back and look at the ones Mayhem and Tex mentioned. Right now, it's after midnight and my brain is mush, so I've given up researching hosts for the night. I'll make up my mind this weekend.

Here's the aff link for Ace-Host if anyone is interested. I'll modify the first post this weekend to add a few and give an update on who my new host will be.

[lyricalb]

Can I buy domains right from Ace like I do from Dreamhost?

[BGryphon]

Can I buy domains right from Ace like I do from Dreamhost?

I know they offer some sort of registration- but I use a different domain registrar 'cause I long ago decided to keep the two things with different companies.