[ale] Hosting Services

[aaron]

On 2009, Apr, 29, , at 9:24 AM, Rett Addy wrote:

> 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
>

If you were needing dedicated hosting I'd point you to Xilogix, the
folks who generously host our ALE resources, but your description
suggests that a shared virtual hosting environment is better suited
to your requirements.

I have set up a few sites on Bluehost.com now and can recommend them  
strongly.
They are quite affordable at ~$6/mo on 2 year contract with  
(essentially)
unlimited disk space and bandwidth. You can host multiple domains on a
single account, I believe up to 5. There service is all Linux and  
provides
all  the common LAMP tools with a very decent control panel web  
interface
and screen capture help "pixeos". Only complaint I have with them is  
having
to close the window for their SPAM filter "upgrade$" advert every  
time I log
in to the control panel.

Dreamhost is another to look at as I have some friends who have been
happy with them.  A google search on hosting will provide about a  
hundred
options, but I would suggest staying away from anything that doesn't
offer all the LAMP tools and SSH access. When I was looking last year
there were about 6 service sites using the same basic page template and
layout and look as Bluehost, so you may run across a lot of hosting
companies that are all just legs of the same squid.

Hope that helps!  Feel free to contact me off list if you want or need
a little consulting and help getting started.

peace
aaron

PS: As a courtesy, please remember to snip the unrelated conversations,
especially when starting a new thread by replying to the digest. Thanks!