Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

Buck_W · Mar 9, 2006, 03:27 PM

I've read through most (perhaps all) of the web hosting threads and after researching many hosting providers, I've narrowed it down to either Lunarpages or Bluehost. (I've also heard really good things about Godaddy, but they do not have complimentary addon domains.)

If anyone one has experience with either Lunarpages or Bluehost, I would appreciate any information you could pass along - pro or con.

Thanks!

Buck_W · Mar 9, 2006, 04:29 PM

UPDATE!

I guess I jumped the gun in declaring that I had narrowed it down to the above two hosts. After further research I've decided to go with: http://www.webmasters.com/

Alcoholica · Mar 10, 2006, 04:48 AM

Have you checked out dreamhost? I've heard they're very reliable, well priced, and you can apparently get $40USD off with the code "FORTYOFF".

Good luck with whoever you pick.

Super Mario · Mar 10, 2006, 09:00 AM

The best specs, support and prices in order are

1. Dreamhost (dont know about support)
2. Bluehost (very good support, specs keep getting better)
3. Lunar Pages

darcybaston · Mar 13, 2006, 09:03 PM

I need a new host. My current site is hosted on stormweb.ca. It's F-A-S-T but unreliable. I've got a site doing 30 GB bandwidth a month which is a couple hundred thousand visitors generating 2.5 mil hits a month. I'm looking for something fast that has SSH access so I can manage the database data myself using command line mysql utilities (can't stand being stuck in phpmyadmin).

Bluehost isn't the quickest but it does have the best features for the price. I'm willing to sacrifice speed for reliability and that precious command line. My content is mostly vbulletin forum stuff with some media downloads so I want a server that can thread well for lots of little loads, AJAX, avatars etc.

Anybody know anything about fast hosts for small files? I want to grow my community site some more and pound some host's server

.

SystemPreffs · Mar 16, 2006, 07:43 AM

I held back on DreamHost, since although it got great comments here, I didn't see it in web sites listing "Top Ten Hosts", etc. But DH has forums, and there's lots of candid comments & help there: there are occasional problems, but DH seems committed to correcting them.

Also, I found a code for $60 off most of the annual plans ("SIMPLY60OFF") and so the $129 annual plan I needed ended up costing me only $69 (incl. free domain reg.).

PHP 4 or 5. etc... Plus: once I had the one account there, I could move all of my smallish domains there for no extra cost (they won't come near taxing the 5GB I'm alotted). (Anybody know how they can afford to do that?) It's working for me.

macsfromnowon · Mar 16, 2006, 07:01 PM

Is DreamHost really allowing you to fill up 5-20 GB of several different domains (they say, "Unlimited")

I'm not sure I can believe that I can put all my dozen domains (none larger than 100MB) together for $60 or a so a year.

Sorry to be suspicious, but has anyone actually done their multiple-domain thing? Are there other costs or limits that I need to be aware of?

Super Mario · 04:14 PM

BH, DH and others allow you to have a number of subdomains. They appear to the outside world as normal top level domains but actually sit inside the top level domain's folder.

macsfromnowon · Mar 17, 2006, 06:22 AM

Originally Posted by Super Mario

They appear to the outside world as normal top level domains but actually sit inside the top level domain's folder.

UGH ! That sounds somehow unsavory. Does it make them harder or requiring something different to access, ftp, etc?

surferboy · Mar 17, 2006, 10:13 AM

Didn't know this thread was here until now. I am very happy with Bluehost. Support and Specs are getting better and better. The founder of Bluehost recently sent out emails to customers asking for customer feedback and suggestions for improvement.

That's impressive.

Super Mario · 04:15 PM

Originally Posted by macsfromnowon

UGH ! That sounds somehow unsavory. Does it make them harder or requiring something different to access, ftp, etc?

When you login FTP that is to the top level domain. You can upload to your subdomains from there. For example if your top level domain is ilovemacs.com you go to your public html folder where your root index.html/php file is and in there you will see folders for your subdomains. If a subdomain is macsrule.com you will see a folder called macsrule etc

Super Mario · 04:15 PM

Originally Posted by surferboy

Didn't know this thread was here until now. I am very happy with Bluehost. Support and Specs are getting better and better. The founder of Bluehost recently sent out emails to customers asking for customer feedback and suggestions for improvement.

That's impressive.

I think they are going to beef up the specs soon for free. They added seven days a week support a month ago.

darcybaston · Mar 31, 2006, 11:59 AM

I decided to go with a virtual dedicated host setup at GoDaddy. So far things are going very well with it. It's a very fast setup and having full control over the software and config of the host machine (well, my virtualized slice of it) is fantastic. I've upgraded mysql and php, setup my own cron scheduled events for backups, emailing activity/security logs, etc. Awesome experience so far!

It's $35 a month if you're handy with the command line. If you need a control panel of some kind like Turbo or Plesk, it's an extra $5 a month.

Love Calm Quiet · Mar 31, 2006, 12:28 PM

Darcy,
(Thanks again for your message comments about vBulletin.)

If I ever get into a forum the size of yours (that actually pays for itself) it sounds like it might be good to look at the virtual hosting such at GoDaddy.

1) Care to link (publicly or privately) to any of the forums you run? Sounds like you've jumped through the hoops.
2) When you talk about command line... do you mean mostly for executing MySQL commands directly? or even mucking around with Apache? (a dark art to me). ...I'd like to figure out if I'm going to need to explore Turbo or Plesk (whatever they be).
Gracias

himself · Apr 21, 2006, 07:36 AM

I'd like some more info about any experiences with BlueHost. I'm using FatCow and godaddy right now, and while both are adequate, I'm looking to move to a host that supports Ruby on Rails and also offers IMAP email, plus a better designed interface with more feature controls (godaddy is absolutely horrible in this respect).

I've looked at Dreamhost, but I read some things on their forums that left me a little worried. So, anything more on Bluehost?

Obi Wan's Ghost · Apr 21, 2006, 01:51 PM

Originally Posted by himself

I've looked at Dreamhost, but I read some things on their forums that left me a little worried. So, anything more on Bluehost?

Bluehost is good enough for http://www.ipodhub.net if they are got 20,000 hits on their 2nd day on line and their site is loading fast.

From their forum:

First of all on our second day we recieved 19848 unique visits (430814 hits). This was rather shocking to us as our team have still been in the process of coordinating their schedules as we live in different countries.

Best thing is to run whois on all sites getting lots of hits and see who the host is.

Any stories?

Love Calm Quiet · Apr 21, 2006, 03:18 PM

Originally Posted by himself

I've looked at Dreamhost, but I read some things on their forums that left me a little worried. So, anything more on Bluehost?

I saw some such, too... but - to their credit - they don't remove such issues from their forums.

There'll be occasional complications on ANY service. I've been adding a new site to my account at DreamHost every week or so during last couple months -- and NO problems. Very smooth. And no extra charge for extra hosting since I've hardly put a dent in my 20GB of space.

The latency for my DH-hosted sites (as measured by watchmouse.com ) is often better than for sites I've got with more expensive hosts.

I think the " SIMPLY60OFF " promo code is from the MacsFromNowOn guy on these boards... and will give you $60 off most 12-month prices.

himself · Apr 21, 2006, 09:06 PM

Thanks for the input! I'm still evaluating things and probably won't switch over for another month or so, but I'm leaning toward Bluehost right now, but things can always change...

daload · Apr 25, 2006, 08:31 AM

Hey

I am a small freelance designer and I am looking for a host with WebDAV support and great uptime...

Obviously bang for buck is really important and dreamhost and bluehost are the most attractive to me in terms of features... I am just wondering if any one has actually used them in a profession such as freelance design (portfolio work, client area)...

Any help on this host issue would be great, I am currently using 24hostingnow.com which is OK at best. Support is phenom however...

Thanks!

daload · 10:18 PM

Has anyone had any experience with Dreamhost at all?

I love the fact they offer webDAV support...

so does iCal.

Love Calm Quiet · May 1, 2006, 08:50 PM

What does it take to have webDAV on the host? That's not something that user can add? Does it cost the host?

I just googled "hosting webDAV" and saw: "Results 1 - 20 of about 1,440,000"...

So I guess you might just need to narrow the search a little further -- then see which names keep coming up.

There are also several "hosting review" sites -- some of which came up at top of that search. So you could research those w/ webDAV.

daload · May 5, 2006, 08:42 PM

im a little confused...