[ale] Hosting Services

Robert Reese~ ale at sixit.com
Wed Apr 29 11:03:27 EDT 2009


> I am a neophyte to setting up websites and hosting but I have a
> need to set up an informational website with pdf files and mp3
> files.  I have already purchased some domain names to hold them.
>
> Does anyone have any recommendations for hosting services and
> tools.  This will not be a big site since it is informational.
>
> I am also thinking about creating a site that will go nationwide in
> the future but I am not sure of what I want to do.  It would be
> nice to sell advertisement on the site to subsidize it but I am not
> sure how to get started with that.
>
> Any advice on the small informational site would be greatly
> appreciated.
>
> Thanks
>
> Rett


Hi Rett,

It boils down to cost.  The more expensive, the better and happier you are going 
to find yourself.

First: stay AWAY from Godaddy hosting at all costs!  They excel at domain 
registrations and should limit themselves to that.

That goes for Yahoo! too.

I've been sort of happy with Lunarpages (AKA BlueHost), although about once per 
month their spam filtering breaks and it takes a few days for them to get it 
back up.  Also, my particular server has had successful intrusions into the mail 
server portion where a hacker was able to either install pharming software to 
gather email addresses or to actually get copies of emails sent to him.  
Lunarpages denies it, but I have proof.  However, my hosting itself has remained 
secure.  I am currently there right now, as my prepaid 2-year fee recently 
expired.  I called and cancelled which prompted them to reduce the price as well 
as give me a chance to vent my unhappiness with certain aspects of my experience 
with them.

Hostgator was a real nightmare when they refused to honor their money-back 
guarantee.  It took several months for me to get it back.  I was very unhappy, 
and literally within minutes of signing onto the cPanel I had cancelled the 
account and requested a refund.  They feel it is an appropriate place to 
advertise the heck out of stuff.  Sorry, my control panel is strictly for 
administering my site(s) and not a place for advertisements.

Hostmonster does not take security seriously to the point that it is very 
ingrained in the employees that I encountered.  At no time is your username, 
password, or other work via the cPanel ever encrypted; it is all sent 
plain-text.  You can't even use their support via encryption the last time I 
checked... you had to send your username and password in plain-text.  My account 
with them expired last week and I let it go.

I've had extremely bad experiences with iPowerWeb and wouldn't use them if they 
PAID me to use their services again.  With iPowerWeb I had irretrievable damage 
to my email from which I never recovered due to the way I use my email; if I had 
enough capital at the time I'd have sued the crap out of them.

I've used OLM with moderate success for a short duration, but there too I 
eventually had enough to leave them.  The specifics escape me; I was there a 
long time but I do remember there were problems bad enough to not go back.

MediaTemple has an interesting service that I'm using called Grid Services.  
Unfortunately, it is a leading-edge technology and the company continues to 
experience growing and learning pains, making the service nowhere near as 
reliable as claimed or expected.  The CEO is pretty up-front and transparent 
after the fact, but all of the customer no-service folks and techs are arrogant 
and rude, with the clear fact that if I didn't like it I was free to search out 
other hosts.  So I am.  However, they do fill the gap between less than $10/mo. 
shared hosting and $100/mo. dedicated or virtual server hosting.  I'm paying 
$17/mo. but getting much less space and other services.  However, as far as 
controlling multiple domains I have more control in certain aspects than typical 
shared hosting.  Unfortunately, I also have less control in certain aspects as 
well.

Dreamhosts SEEM like a dream,  but I hesitate to recommend them as the ONLY way 
to contact anyone in support should you need it is via email even in 
emergencies.  The one person to whom I spoke when I cancelled after a day or so 
testing their hosting was very nice (before you ask, they called ME).

A very inexpensive (and bare-bones) way to go is NearlyFreeSpeech.  One great 
advantage is their principle of allowing you to host pretty much anything you 
want as long as it isn't spam or other illegal activity.  Unfortunately, this 
means that you'll also find your site on some block lists.  It is also very bare 
bones as I said.  But it IS very inexpensive and hands-offish as far as content 
(especially political or technical goes).

Aplus is okay, but they are fairly expensive and I have had serious incompetency 
in the past.  BUT, they have some very nice add-on features.  I may go back to 
them for some of my domains at some point.

One more thing: I can't remember which hosting company that I used (and probably 
fired) in the not-to-distant past, but when I tried to get credit for an 
extended outage I got an A-Hole supervisor that flat out told me that the 
99.9...% uptime guarantee only applied to the entire company's hosting as a 
whole and that it was "only a marketing" scheme.  When I pressed him he finally 
admitted that it was misleading and no one would ever be able to claim the 
credit.  I can't remember if I fired that company or if I got a credit for an 
entire month after all... I think it was the latter.

In my research, I found to stay away from 1and1.  I don't remember why, I just 
remember scratching them off my list since they were in the top selection.  
Whatever it was, it was bad enough for me to remember to stay away.

Anyway, the moral of the story is to do your research and be prepared to walk 
away and try a different hosting outfit.  Either that, or pony up the cash for 
dedicated or virtual server hosting.

Cheers,
Robert~



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