OT : Web hosting

mschulz · Since 29 May 2007 530 Posts Reno, NV Addicted

I know this is way off topic, but I need to change out my web hosting company. Any recommendations for inexpensive and reliable. I have 4 sites I need to host so I am sure there is not cut rate for that number. Any help would be great.

Mark

noah · Since 19 Oct 2006 173 Posts Bozeman, Montana Stoked

I use Modwest: http://www.modwest.com/indexb.phtml

Macboy · Since 28 May 2011 32 Posts Edmonton, AB, Canada

GoDaddy. Ten years and no issues. Good support, low rates for services.

The only complaint I have is IF you need to call, there's no 800#. Otherwise I'll never use anyone else.....and I do this for a living.

MarkWorth · Since 02 May 2011 149 Posts Hood River Stoked

Gorge. net has hosted my sites for 15 years. They answer the phone and fix any problems.
If you want great reliability and to have access to the people who are controlling the billing and the people programming the server, gorge.net is the way to go.
I had some of my Sites hosted with a company that was bought by the phone company and it took over a year to get them to release my domain so I could move it. The changes took dozens of phone calls to these assholes and at least 20 hours being on hold to get my domains out of their clutches. When the sites were finally moved they continued to charge me. When I refused to continue to pay for hosting sites that they were not hosting any more they set bill collectors on me.
Gorge net has humans that you can reason with and actually deal with your request.

forrest · Sat May 19, 12 8:08 am

What platform? Linux, Windows, Solaris?

BigR · Since 05 Jul 2005 372 Posts White Salmon Obsessed

www.hostgator.com

pkh · Since 27 Feb 2005 6549 Posts Couve / Hood Honored Founder

I use Linode http://www.linode.com/

You have to run the server yourself but it will be much faster than shared hosting options.

tautologies · Since 24 Aug 2006 602 Posts Oahu Addicted

Amazon

OG · Since 07 Jun 2011 599 Posts Addicted

heres my very nerdy answer that hopefully will help you out.

If you just need to host static/no db sites, check out doing it on something like Amazon S3. You will only pay for what you use, and it is pennies cheap. Like one person suggested, you could use a combination of amazon web services to create just about anything and would be scalable in any number of ways to accommodate anything you can think of. This would be a very complicated way of accomplishing what you want, and would require some real techie capability. This may be what you need, but I doubt it. AWS is a great way for building on demand web/app backend stuff that only needs to be available for small periods of time (minutes/hours/days/weeks/months, not years). It is very standard to use AWS EBS or S3 for storage of things like images for any type of site, and will also keep your site from bottle necking on things like images during high traffic periods. The cost benefit of AWS, when you include the use of EC2 instances, tends to thin out the longer you use it. It would be cheaper to get a virtual private server for a month than to run an ec2 instance for a month. With aws though, you can make it as big and bad as you want for as long or short a time as you want and only pay for what you use.

NearlyFreeSpeech.net is a host i put some clients that i'm wanting to support after the sale. Its is another pay for what you use type of thing. Their interface kind of demands that you have some technical competency. Everything with them costs less and they are really very good. They support dynamic sites, but I think they only do mysql backends (no sql server or oracle stuff).

If I have a client that i do not want to know anymore after the sale, I push them toward GoDaddy. Lots of people dont like it, lots do. They are not the least expensive, but do have dummy proof tools to interface with for your site and you can get someone on the phone. They have all the db/cms/ecom stuff anyone could ever want.

Getting a virtual private server is another good option if you are up for the administratioin necessary to configure a server, probably a linux server, that will be running apache/iis, a db, and probably some type of secure ftp. You mentioned having a couple of sites, so there is some need to be fairly proficient in configuring virtual hosting and then also in being able to lock it down. I dont have a ton of win server experience, but know that this is not trivial stuff on either win or lin. I have a vps that I host some clients on, it works out well. I have to be very careful not to accidentally take their stuff down when i'm adding someone or doing maintenance. This is what I do, so i should be good at it. You on the other hand may not, and may not want to. The hosting i use for this is very far from cheap, so I cannot give you a recommendation on it. It looks like PKH has suggested one he likes though.

PM me if you have more questions

Jonpnw · Mon May 21, 12 10:17 am

Freeride Kiter · Tue May 22, 12 9:19 am **Blue Host**

My sites been on them 10 years as well, no problems and full control of server side services.