[Cowdog]

I'm shopping around for a new web host. I've been using icom for like 3 or 4 years now but over that time there has probably been a cumulative of maybe 1-2 weeks downtime and that really sucks when you have customers trying to load your pages.

The pluses of them are it's pretty cheap $15/month and unlimited data transfer (when I signed up looks like it's changed)

Can anyone recommend someone else? Unlimited data would be a plus, of course would need standard stuff like ftp access, email, perl, ssi and ssl. Free transfer of a domain name would also be good and free log files and ssl included would be nice bonuses.

thanks.

[ 10-26-2001: Message edited by: Cowdog ]

[Cowdog]

umm.. How about a different question, do you have a website, who do you use to host it?

[funkboy]

My own site I have simply hosted with the free space (10MB) my ISP gives me - I can fit all the necessary files in there, and it has all the features I need (PHP! weeee!) , at least at the moment.
I use a domain redirect from Redirection.net so I can have an easy-to-remember URL...

However, if I didn't have free space from my ISP, I think I'd use Redirection.net's parent company, Tera-Byte, for my hosting. Their pricing is quite cheap and, though I haven't used their web hosting too much (one client, I believe) , the tech support I received was pretty quick. Servers are reliable, too.

[graphixmaker]

I have my own server luckily. My company owns a Cobalt RaQ4 which is very cool to have. We just host our own website on it at the moment but want to start hosting other sites. The Cobalt has PHP, ASP, SSI and all those goodies. We do have ssl but have it set up for our e-commerce stuff.

What do you need the ssl for? Are you taking credit cards online or something? Let me know what you want, maybe we can work something out.

Jim

[macvillage.net]

Just remember, you get what you pay for really... some tips:

Avoid anything "unlimited" there is no such thing as "unlimited" everything has a limit... what they mean is " we cancel when we feel like it, since we didn't promise a max"

Check that they have more than one backbone

Ask for some client sites, if not listed on the site, and run them through http://www.netcraft.com and see if they own their own IP block, or if they are just some reseller with servers in Exodus or something. If the servers are offsite, and there is a problem... well you get the idea.

Don't sign long contracts until you have had them for a while. Do a 1 month, then if you like it consider a 6 month, regardless of how much of a discount you get.

Ask how many clients per server.

Ask for the specs:
At least 800MHz PIII or 300MHz SUN
At least SCSI drives min 10,000 RPM
AT least 512 MB RAM
AT least 10/100BT Ethernet Card (if not gigabit)
Don't go with Windows IIs (not to windows bash) but they tend to waste resources, it still is processing that display when the computer is in a rack. That is why they don't make good web servers. Not to mention security issues. I personally would look for Solaris (excellent), FreeBSD, NetBSD, Linux, Mac OS X (Darwin)
Check that they offer PHP3 (minimum) and PHP4 at least as a CGI. As well as PERL. Ask what type of restrictions they have on CGI's, and if they have some sort of reaper system setup to prevent abusers... if they don't someone could overload a server.
Make sure that they have specific policies against SPAM, MP3's, Porn, Warez... they all have a tendency to overload servers (especially porn, warez and mp3 sites) and all could possibly cause your IP address(s) to be blacklisted (bad news)

[Cowdog]

Originally posted by macvillage.net:
<STRONG>Just remember, you get what you pay for really... some tips:
</STRONG>

thanks for all the tips, do you recommend anyone? Thats what I'm really looking for. Do you know anyone, please, please

Unlimited transfer would just mean they don't have a cap on it and charge extra if you go over your monthly. If not unlimited the cap would just have to be high enough that a medium size site with 600 - 1000 visitors a month wouldn't go over. The entire site is under 15 megs, about 50 pages, 200 jpegs/gifs...

I do need ssl for taking credit cards. The hosting is for a flower site that mainly takes orders of the internet.

[l008com]

Well you could always buy yourself an old 450G4 on ebay, load up OSX server, and get your self a very reliable fast internet connection, like maybe 1MBit up and down. And presto, not only are you now hosting out of your bedroom, but you also get free fast internet from it, and best of all, updating your page is going to be much easier. Thats sorta what I do (minus the really fast internet) and updating my page is a snap, I just open the original files!

[druber]

If you want to look at a lot of hosting offers and feedback on different hosts, webhostingtalk.com is the way to go. Tera-byte is very well respected, though the respect brought them more business than they expected, IIRC. For big and dependable, try pair.com.

Gotta agree with macvillage on all points. I've read countless stories about offers for unlimited transfers that turned into nightmares. Data transfer costs money--don't trust someone who tells you it's free. Check with your current host and try to come up with some stats for how much data you really send and shop accordingly.

[Mac Guru]

Downtownhost.com has REALLY good deals on hosting and they are REALLY reliable and have AWESOME customer service. I'm paying $20/mo. for 350MB of web space, 12GB of bandwidth, 25 subdomains, CGI, PHP 4, 6 MySQL db's, SSL, Password Protectable DIR's, and JSP. It's a real sweet deal... the only downtime I have had in the 6 months I've been with the guys is 4 hours when they upgraded their servers... I'd say that's pretty good.

They have LOTS of plans ranging from 20MB for $7.95/mo to 1GB for $40.95/mo.

Mac Guru

[MadBrowser]

We run our server farm out of a co-location facility from Exodus Communications. Yahoo is down the hall and E-Bay around the corner.

[druber]

Who's "we," Madbrowser?

[m a d r a]

i'd recommend futurequest

they're not the cheapest out there but they really know their stuff. the staff are friendly and [probably the best thing] they've got a community forum set-up where all their users can dicuss problems, gripes, help each other out etc.

i pay $39,95 per month for 75MB virtual server, unix hosting, unlimited emails, ftp access, my own CGI-bin, PHP/mySQL support, 6 mySQL databases, SSL etc... etc....

like i say, not the cheapest but definately the most reliable, 'clued-up' and friendly i've tried. been with them for three years and average about 99,9% uptime.

wonder if i'll get a commission for recommending them?

[ 11-10-2001: Message edited by: m a d r a ]