Please help me in choosing web hosting

[0xyGen]

Hi everyone,
I am sorry for possible offtopic, but I need your help in find new web hosting provider as soon as possible, because my current host (bluehost.com) is kicking me off, they say 'your account is using a lot server resources', but my website gets only about 200 visitors per day and my disk usage is 1500 MB (maybe they do not like that?)

Anyway, what would be your recommendations for getting reliable web hosting? Where are you hosting your websites? Are you happy with your providers?

I am now checking Hosting24.com - First Class Web Hosting Services (http://www.hosting24.com/) - offer looks very nice, but is it real that they can provide unlimited disk space?
I have contacted them about this question and they say something that "These days 500GB disk drive costs only $30 per month, so if some day we will run out of disk space we will simply add new 500GB disk drive with almost zero costs and you can continue uploading without any problems".

What do you think about it? Maybe things have changed in last 4 years? With my current provider I get only 2GB of disk space for $10 per month..
Any ideas and suggestions are much appreciated.

[speed]

Are you being kicked for disk, bandwidth or CPU usage, if it's CPU usage you'll likely get kicked from any budget provider.

I love the way hosts get confused over the difference between unlimited and unmetered transfer, on hosting24.com they say:

Unlimited data transfer becomes normal these days too. Our internet service provider is giving us dedicated and unmetered 100 mpbs line on each server, so we can offer unlimited bandwidth for you to!
A 100mbps line is capable of around 30TB per month of data transfer so what they really mean is unmetered not unlimited, that is they don't monitor how much you transfer but there is a limit.

As there are hard limits on a server if you read the hosts terms they will almost always have a clause which says something about how many resources you can use over a given period of time, or you are subject to fair usage or something along those lines. They have to do that so they can kick people off who monopolise the server resources, e.g. CPU.

I did look but couldn't find their terms, but it brings us back to the original question of are you being kicked for bandwidth, disk or CPU and will the new host have a high enough limit for your site.

Have you also noticed that the forum, support and webmail links at the top of hosting24s pages all fail to work?

Personally I'd avoid any host claiming unlimited anything, Shared Hosting Offers - Web Hosting Talk - The largest, most influential web hosting community on the Internet (http://www.webhostingtalk.com/forumdisplay.php?f=4) has offers by various hosts.

[GlowHost.com]

... but is it real that they can provide unlimited disk space?

The answer is an undeniable NO! When was the last time you went shopping for computers and found one that had hard drives with unlimited space?

There is always a finite space available on a hard drive and again, as the previous poster said, read the terms of service (if they even have one) typically on "unlimited" anything type hosting plans there is a some clause that states you will never ever be able to use what you thought you paid for.

With disk space there is most likely a limit on the number of inodes (AKA files and folders) that you can have on the site, a certain % of the files you have on the server must be linked from the website, there are likely restrictions of the file types you can store, for example, no .mp3 or files over 50 MB in size, etc.

Look for a hosting provider that does not sell unlimited hosting plans or offers unlimited hosting plans alongside realistic hosting plans that have true limits and you will find that you are a lot less likely to get kicked off of their service.

Here is an article you might enjoy.

glog » Blog Archive » Web Hosting - Why More Costs Less (http://glowhost.org/web-hosting/web-hosting-why-more-costs-less/)

[ee222]

Please check out the best web hosting company on the web site at:

http://www.uswebcity.com/computers/top-web-hosting.html

...

[GuaranteedTraffic]

just as your host is restricting you for using too many resources

all the "unlimited" guys will restrict you if you use too much of thier "unlimited" resources too quickly.

what are you paying for hosting, i am sure a bud of mine would be happy to have your business and match the offer you had at blue.

[GlowHost.com]

Please check out the best web hosting company

You mean please check out the hosts that paid top dollar for those advertisements? What criteria do you have for adding them to your site? They pay a fee right? How does that make them the best?

[ee222]

What criteria do you have for adding them to your site? How does that make them the best?

Hello, the best are: one click - full web site backup, AWStats - web statistics, and transfer / bandwidth 15,000 GB.

[activeco]

There are (obviusly) several members here offering webhosting.
You could also check some specialized forum such as Web Hosting Talk - The largest, most influential web hosting community on the Internet (http://www.webhostingtalk.com/).

Personally I use jaguarpc, being very satisfied with them, however I don't know about their support as I run/install all the programs and services by myself. A few minor issues were solved by their stuff very fast though.

[craigmn3]

godaddy.com is the most affordable, most reliable and most helpful hoster that I have run across

I currently use
Hostway (boo)
Network Solutions (boo)
Bluehost (pretty good)
Hostgator (pretty good)
Ipowerweb (okay)
Prohosting (pretty good)
Yahoo (boo- way over priced)
Aplus (pretty good)

but godaddy gets the bulk of business, I just use the others to keep an independant look for the search engines on some of my sites.

[John]

Personally I use jaguarpc, being very satisfied with them, however I don't know about their support as I run/install all the programs and services by myself. A few minor issues were solved by their stuff very fast though.

I use JaguarPC too after going through all the major ones and always finding they find some excuse trying to make you upgrade to a higher plan; either because you want a cron job, or this or that.

For me, they are just tops. Their support is the best and fastest I ever had, and I have hosted at about 4 other host before going to them.

One bit of advice, from my experience: it is worth paying a bit more for peace of mind. You can waste so much time trying to sort out troubles if you do not have a good support team or need to move again, even if it is upgrading with the same host.

Good luck

[adenjo]

I am now checking Hosting24.com - First Class Web Hosting Services (http://www.hosting24.com/) - offer looks very nice, but is it real that they can provide unlimited disk space?.

Rule#1 for me when choosing a host is do they have an obvious phone number listed on their website? I see that Hosting24 does not. If it were me, I would run away from them.

We have used webmasters.com since 1999 and their support and service has always been great.

that's my 2 cents...

[thorfjalar]

What about setting up your own server? With 200 visitors per day you should easily be able to handle it (if you are in the states and) if you got a broadband connection.

Oh and I use drupalvaluehosting.com, $60 for a year (with promo code) of unlimited number of domains/sites.

[advancedmerchant]

Avoid Hostway, I have gone down a dozen times in the last week! Grrrrr.

[StevenRB]

... my current host (bluehost.com) is kicking me off, they say 'your account is using a lot server resources', but my website gets only about 200 visitors per day.

As someone who provides web hosting (which I will not promote here), I can tell you that any outfit *promising* unlimited bandwidth or disk space for a fixed price (whether that be $6.95 or $160.95) is a fraudster.

But there's no down-side for the $6.95/$9.95 hosting crowd, because the *vast* majority of websites on the planet get almost no traffic. Meanwhile, the types of folks who actually have traffic, but would go for such a lowball pitch in the first place, aren't going to:

a) Read the fine print,

b) Risk the expense of taking the host to court.

[NJ]

Good web hosting is really important, especically the technical support. So far, my worst experiences have been with Interland and GoDaddy.

I used to host with a great company called Communitech - in Missouri - but they were bought out by Interland. I would go to teach a web development class, and instead of the class materials I loaded on the web server, I would get the word Taurus up in the corner of the page. I have current experience with a site on Interlands servers, and they are down way too much of the time.

GoDaddy's tech support should get some real computer training. I was scheduled to teach a PHP/MySQL class, and I should have just figured their system out without calling tech support. They steered me wrong so many times, I had to cancel a session.

I use Modwest.com for many of the sites I work on. They are responsive and answer my questions with real answers (real computer geeks means I get a real answer), not something someone looks up in a database.

[amxfan]

Ipowerweb (okay) ?????? I have to ask how can you say this. I had 3 sites on Ipower and have moved all but one of them. Try and call them and your on hold for about 2 hours for them to tell you we will fix it but never do. Call billing or sales and your also on hold forever. They have been hacked in the past 3 months more times then one can count. They have been updating to a new Vdeck version for over a year which causes your site and email go down. A few years ago they were okay with good support and service but today is another matter.

Don't take my word for it. Google "Ipowerweb sucks" or "Ipowerweb hack" and make up your own mind.

Oh one more thing. Reports from FreeWebMonitoring.com on the one site that is still on Ipower

Time: 2008-06-07 17:02:46
Time on Error: 04 hours 11 minutes 02 seconds
Time: 2008-06-07 12:51:43
Time on Error: 02 hours 55 minutes 24 seconds
Time: 2008-05-26 03:27:47
Time on Error: 05 hours 05 minutes 50 seconds
Time: 2008-02-12 00:04:25
Time on Error: 02 hours 32 minutes 06 seconds

These are just the ones I saved.

Check out host Gator, but yes I have to agree depending on why your being asked to leave you may find it with them as well.

[tenntrips]

Prohosting (pretty good)



Prohosting BIG BOO...
Hosted with them and some idiot switched off my site and deleted all the files, even though I was paid up, and WAY under their limits...
Thank heaven for backups!!

Unfortunately google crawled while I was out and my search listing went from #4 to PAGE 104..

Now I'm on Site5 and have been pretty happy. Only an occasional outage which usually for only a few minutes.

[SEO]

If I was you... I would be working things out with Bluehost.
In my opinion they are one of the best hosts around.
I got pulled up by them for using too many server resources a while ago (CPU usage). When I went and had a look at some of my websites they were very slow to load. You will find that a lot of third party widgets on your site can cause this problem. Some of those Amazon widgets (especially the tags widget) etc. can use up a lot of your hosts CPU resources.

[angstforless]

hi!
I am probably the noobiest of noobs, but I would love to recommend a host to you.
I do not know what their limits are, my web site is still on the small side of things as I teach myself various web design stuff, hopefully it will be a larger endeavor in time. But one of the things I looked for when I was choosing a host was availability.
the host is <b> Tiger Technologies Web Hosting with Free Domain Name (http://tigertech.net/) </b> I think I might make something if I send them a referral, but honestly I dont care about that...so dont even worry about it. I just wanted to say that in the time i have done business with them, they are ALWAYS VERY fast and personable whenever I have any problems! Really good people. I tried a couple of other hosts before I went with them, and I hated not being able to talk to anyone, or getting a "chatbox" that felt like I was dealing with a robot and not a live person. Tigertech returns emails..usually within the hour, and their phone support is exemplary. As I said, I dont know what their limits are, but I'm sure they have a plan that will fit you. I do not work for Tigertech, nor do I know anyone who does. I dont own stock..I dont even know if they have stock. Seriously, this is an unbiased, and unsolicited referral. I just think these guys are honestly one of the best hosting outfits I have found. Again I know I am a little green with this web site stuff, but anytime I hear "unlimited", "free", and various other <b>"marketing power words"™<b>I get that all too familiar feeling and it usually turns out to be right. so this is my sincere attempt to help someone else out for a change. I wish you the best!
ciao,
robert

[langsor]

My experience has been with the following hosts:

Communitech now Interland => Interland is an unresponsive mega-hosting provider, avoid at all cost.

GoDaddy => Terrible admin area layout and in my experience is just trying to push more paid micro-features after you buy into the basic hosting.

Yahoo => Not terribly exciting and overpriced.

BlueVirtual => Pretty good but not enough control of site/server admin for my tastes and could be more reponsive.

BlueHost => Absolutely my favorite hosting so far. Incredibly responsive customer support, amazing features for the money, easy and full featured site admin area.

...So why exactly did you get 86'd from BlueHost? That would take some doing by my experience. Of course if you have intensive server scripts consuming CPU usage, you might consider looking for alternatives to those scripts wherever you go. And BlueHost does have some restrictions, like no copyrighted Mp3 files and obvious stuff like that, otherwise they have been the best I've found in the last 10 years.

Good luck

[incrediblehelp]

I like host gator

[bijan814]

Go with gator, never had a problem with them

[Najoba]

Whatever you do, if you live in the United States, make sure your web hosting service is based in this country. You have little recourse if you choose an outside source, should something go wrong. I'd also like to suggest you make certain the tech support people are English speakers. It makes for much better and more accurate communication. I learned all this the hard way. At first, I had a Malaysian web host, and everything went fine for a couple of years, and then he absconded with $250.00 of our money and let our domains expire. We lost all but one domain. Next, I used a Chinese web hosting service, but trying to get tech support was almost impossible, due to the language barrier. Getting a web hosting service in another country might save you a little money initially, but the risk and hassle aren't worth the savings.

[ron angel]

[QUOTE=craigmn3;383293]godaddy.com is the most affordable, most reliable and most helpful hoster that I have run across

I agree with above very good 24 hr tech support & reliability just ignore all the extras they try to sell you unless you need them. I you want or need more bandwidth just pay a little extra upgrade any time.

[webgoddess]

I've been very happy with hostgator.

[littlegiant]

Hi everyone,
I am sorry for possible offtopic, but I need your help in find new web hosting provider as soon as possible, because my current host (bluehost.com) is kicking me off, they say 'your account is using a lot server resources', but my website gets only about 200 visitors per day and my disk usage is 1500 MB (maybe they do not like that?)

Anyway, what would be your recommendations for getting reliable web hosting? Where are you hosting your websites? Are you happy with your providers?

I am now checking Hosting24.com - First Class Web Hosting Services (http://www.hosting24.com/) - offer looks very nice, but is it real that they can provide unlimited disk space?
I have contacted them about this question and they say something that "These days 500GB disk drive costs only $30 per month, so if some day we will run out of disk space we will simply add new 500GB disk drive with almost zero costs and you can continue uploading without any problems".

What do you think about it? Maybe things have changed in last 4 years? With my current provider I get only 2GB of disk space for $10 per month..
Any ideas and suggestions are much appreciated.

Bluehost, eh? Heh... figures. IMHO, worst host ever. I will give them credit for giving me a pro-rated refund when I was forced (because of excessive downtime) to abandon 5 months left on my year's paid subscription though.

Try Lunarpages or Hostgator.

[deepsand]

Please check out the best web hosting company on the web site at:

Top 10 Web Hosting Reviews, Top 10 Best Web Hosting, Top Rated Web Hosts, Top 10 Rank Web Site Hosting Domain Names Registration (http://www.uswebcity.com/computers/top-web-hosting.html)

...

Look - your Green Rep marker just turned Red! :cry:

Hm-mm. Might that have anything to do with the junk you've been posting? :confused:

[bj]

I use DownTownHost and HostingZoom. DTH is fabulous and very customer centric, HZ is okay.

Using both Google and WebHostingTalk.com forum to research your choices will keep you from making a mistake.

I also suggest that if you're using that much resources with that little traffic, you might need to redesign your site. That's ridiculous that you're in trouble with only 200 visitors a day. If you can't get load down, then you should be using youtube to host your video or you are using an ap that has WAY too many db calls.

[rsbertsch]

Dot5hosting has been a good service in the past and at 4.95 per month to host my site skyboundsports.com That is until they changed to the new Vdeck 3. They are still a good hosting service but now some of the past included services are extra cost.

So far I have not needed the extra service such as a shopping cart, but that may soon change. They used to have a free web page design tool, but, now it looks like that has become an extra charge. I use front page for my design tools so that has not been an issue.

downtime has never been an issue, customer support and billing like most places has improved with phone support and live chat.

Has anyone else used dot5hosting? if so what has your experience been with them?

Ron Bertsch

[puamana]

I just went through moving from a ripoff hosting service that was charging me over a $200 per month for 5 GB about a year ago, and I now host my sites with Hostgator.com (as well as some of my clients under my reseller account there...)

The pricing is great, great tech support and they'll even transfer domains for you from your old host the new one... free of charge.
You can always upgrade if you need more space/services/bandwidth - although their basic offerings is very generous, for the price, I think.

For clients who don't require very robust backend smtp email lists, and lots of extras... I recommend Godaddy.com hosting.
I usually select Linux flavor, though I've worked some sites on Windows hosting as well. IMPORTANT: If you are planning on running an email newsletter or the like, Godaddy.com is not the best choice, as they charge for stmp over 60 per day. They do have wonderful tech support though, so try to match your requirements for what you need your site to do...

Another host I recommend that my clients have been very happy with is IXWebhosting.com (though they bill quarterly, biannually or yearly - rather than monthly). Again, good pricing, and excellent tech support.

I can recommend any of these three hosts without question - as I've used or am currently using their services. Check them out :)

Puamana

[Orion]

IMHO...

There's lots of good and bad with every provider...

I have used personally or worked with clients sites on about 40 different host providers over the last 11 years, before finally getting our own dedicated (managed) servers for our clients.

Cautionary Note: When you're reading the opinions and experiences of others in forums and blogs, pay attention to WHEN they had that experience. As a few have mentioned in here Host A was great a few years ago but now is a different story.. I've found with many hosting companies that the worst times are during their growth periods, that's when they get in a bunch of new hardware / staff and sales people that are selling faster than the company infrastructure can keep up .. something goes wrong and it snowballs into a major fubar experience for many.

Almost 3 years ago now we came across Atjeu, they are a smaller datacenter in Arizona, but their service has been excellent, they do have phone support but I've honestly never used it as their ticket system works great (Literally average about 10mins for a response!)... I have NO experience with their shared hosting though.

Recommendation: Based on the size of your site I would recommend that you look into a VPS (virtual private server (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_private_server)). That will give you the space and more that you need, tell you how much bandwidth you can use each month (and you can upgrade on the fly to a higher account with more resources if you need it). A VPS gives you the 'managed' aspects you're used to, the freedom of your own server, and you have a set CPU allotment that is burstable for those extra busy times. I have used VPS servers many times over the years while growing our hosting and have moved several clients to them as they're businesses (and sites) grew.

Something that you might consider: If you are totally unsure of which provider to go with (and you can afford to) pick two...
option A: If your site is static simply upload a duplicate copy of your site to each provider, for nameserver one pick the main one you want to check out first, for nameserver two put the main nameserver of the alternate. This also allows that if provider one crashes or can't serve up your site visitors will automatically be routed to your alternate provider.
option B: If your site is dynamic then you would need to have software to sync your databases
option C: The ultimate in hosting reliability would be to have a load balancing proxy set up between the two host providers so that they share the load of the site between them... (expensive though)

For any of these solutions I recommend (highly recommend) that you host your own nameservers and DNS via your domain name registrant, they have extremely reliable servers and if you need to quickly change a site simply updating your IP (at the nameserver level) or changing your DNS setting will almost immediately point your site to another location so you'll have almost 0 downtime...

All the best in your search!

[khurramali]

I would recommend Web Hosting, Reseller Hosting, and Dedicated Website Hosting w/ cPanel - HostGator (http://www.hostgator.com) hosting,

good 24/7 support and live chat.

I run my own linux and windows based hosting company but I only sell to my seo and website development clients as a value added thing. So they don't have to go to other companies and they get a one stop shop for all their online business needs

[zephyrireland]

I use HostEasier for my personal website and I get about 1200 unique visits per day with no issues over 3 years

I also use Cedant and APLus a lot bot provide good service with Cedant being that bit better,

[rondo]

You can join HostGator for only one cent and see if you like them: HostGator coupon (http://www.hostingdiary.com/hostgator-coupon.html)


Andrew

[DONtk]

In the last four years I think I've tried two dozen different hosts everyone promises you the world and then when you sign up with them they want to sell you everything they possibly can. You get exactly which pay for. I been with my web for almost a year.
If it wasn't for them I probably wouldn't have a web site. They told me right upfront what I was going to get there was no hidden costs. They even have a thirty-day guarantee. I asked to talk to some of the people they host. They said no problem. I was stunned to find out how many people that they host are in the top 1 percent with Alexia. It's nice to find a host that's upfront with you and wanting you to succeed. You should check them out.you've had nothing to lose and everything gain.here's their site.
Site Build It! - Web Hosting (http://webhosting.sitesell.com/Don61.html)
I hope this helps out.

DON
San Francisco, the city made for discovering, over & over again! (http://www.discovering-sanfrancisco.com)

[amxfan]

Site Build It! - Web Hosting (http://webhosting.sitesell.com/Don61.html)


http://webhosting.sitesell.com/Don61.html

That would not be a affiliate link would it?

just wondering

[Marcus]

I've used a few different hosts with mixed levels of success. The one that I currently use and have had the best results with is SimpleBizHosting. You can find them at mlcweb.com along with a variety of other options. With Simple I get complete cpanel and whm, my own name servers, 5G space 50G xfer and no limits on number of domains/sites hosted, and all for under $25 per month. This is their "Ultimate Resellers Package" and they have a variety of other options as well. I currently have 45 domains of various activity levels on this host and have had very few complaints. Whenever there has been an issue they have handled it quickly.

[Webplayer]

I can only recommend Host Gator. They have several good offers for a small amount of money. Eg a 0,01$ for the first 30 days offer.

The service is quite well.

That's what I can say. :)

http://freetvepisode.info/gate.jpg

[Webnauts]

I host after endless of bad experiences with several hosting companies at http://www.mediatemple.net/ (http://www.mediatemple.net)
See which other customers are hosting there too: (mt) Media Temple - Our Clients (http://www.mediatemple.net/company/clients/)

Good luck.

[jordanmcclements]

For anyone in the UK - I can heartily recommend Domain Names - Virtual Servers - Dedicated Server - Register1.net (http://register1.net)

My bandwidth was over 130GB last month and I had no problems at all...

They have great support as well.

[speed]

Some of the replies here are for VPS solutions yet the thread starter started he's only getting 200 visitors a day, unless those 200 visitors are doing something computationally intense e.g. video encoding or using vast amounts of bandwidth I would expect a shared hosting plan to suffice.

The problem with a VPS is unless you know how to manage a server you will need to either use a managed VPS provider or outsource management.

For any of these solutions I recommend (highly recommend) that you host your own nameservers and DNS via your domain name registrant, they have extremely reliable servers and if you need to quickly change a site simply updating your IP (at the nameserver level) or changing your DNS setting will almost immediately point your site to another location so you'll have almost 0 downtime...
The gotcha with not using the hosts name servers is if they move your site to another server, e.g. in the case of a server failure then your site will be down until you realise and update the IP address in your DNS records, where as if you use their name servers then the move would be transparent.

[deadhippo]

This topic is a tough one. I just moved from two hosts (aplus.net and ixwebhosting) which I recommend you don't use. aplus continue to bill me even though I cancelled months ago. That said they did refund me today but I expect to be billed again. ixweb were continually down and they were a pretty dishonest bunch of people. I lost days of my life dealing with them and that's not including the stress.

So the search was on for a good webhost. What I found was that this is one of the worst industries I have ever come across. The plots are thick enough to confuse Shakespeare. You don't know what to believe. There are rating sites with people's opinions some of which are true, some not. I realize that some of the stuff posted in these things, some of these glowing reports are planted by the companies they are recommending. The opposite is also true. Some of the bad reports are planted by rivals. And then it gets thicker. Stories are planted that those some of those stories are planted and on and on. What a nightmare. I was reading posts about people who claimed to have worked for these companies and was instructed to create this mudslinging and backstabbing garbage. I read other posts about that person being a fraud. I was nearly pulling my hair out and when I finally settled on one that was not an "unlimited" type I was really happy for about a day, whe I realized they too were not so good and extremely rude. The service was OK but it took time. So then instead of putting all my eggs in one basket I chose another host which I have no complaints about yet. But it is early.

Good luck.

[dtalbot]

I have about 150 sites with Hostasaurus Web Hosting, Miva Merchant Hosting, Dedicated Miva Servers (http://www.Hostasaurus.com). I've been with them for years. Their support is awesome. Their up time is amazing. Their prices are competative. Best of all they are honest.

[edhan]

I think it boils down to how much you are willing to pay for quality hosting. After going through different hosting since 1997, I am now hosting for some clients as well as my own sites. I am choosing my hosting service that comes with full control - telnet, ftp and own nameservers. My clients are willing to pay for quality hosting so they are happy with it. I have tried those cheaper hosting that seem to great with features but didn't turn out to be so after some times.

So, I guess it will definitely be what you pay for is what you will get.

[fiddler]

I use two companies for all my hosting (I have 70+ clients I am a "reseller" for):
HostMySite.com - the very best (and I've used numerous companies over the 12 years I've been in business). They have an 800 number and tech support that is superior - really know their stuff and are always helpful and courteous. I use them for the last 6 years and set up all my major (large) customers on them and have never had a problem.

The other is HostGator.com - I like their cpanel interface - it gives me lots of control, and I can determine how much hard drive and bandwidth my customers can have according to the prices I set vs their needs, and alter that accordingly. Their tech support is mediocre, so if I have a client that requires a lot of techy stuff I need help with, I invariably go with HostMySite.com, but for most of my clients, which have small, simple sites, HostGator.com has been a very good and reliable host.

[srdill]

A Boston Web Design Company | W3 EDGE (http://www.w3-edge.com) - great people, will tell you straight away if they can help you. Also very knowledgeable in design, coding, SEO, SEM and optimization, should you ever need those services as well.

[RichAtVNS]

Hi everyone,
but my website gets only about 200 visitors per day and my disk usage is 1500 MB (maybe they do not like that?)


For what it's worth I use a separate imgae server from my webserver. This will alleviate many problems, because 1.5 gigabytes is nothing for an image server. And they expect lots harddisk usage and transfer, but not lots of CPU usage.

Something I would not recommend unless you have programmers or a sys admin on staff is to actually host the website (sans images) in house because the amount of data traffic from the pages without the images is actually miniscule and with a Dynamic DNS service (like dyndns.com) you can change your connectivity and ip addresses at the drop of a hat.

It also allows you more secure, and greater control of yur servers,

For what it is worth I use Hosting4Less for my image serving for years and I have roughtly 200,000 product images, pdfs, animations and zip files on the servers taking up over 25 gigabytes and have been using them without a hiccup for over 7 years.

Note I don't even bother having them do the DNS I just have a simple group of ip addresses which I use and I set up as subdomains through Dynamic DNS service I use.

The total out of pocket a year for me to host this way for approximately 10 websies with full connectivity in my offices using Opt-Online for a year is under 1500 dollars.

[paradice]

I'm chiming in a little late but there were a couple of things I did not see in the responses to you which are pretty important.

Bluehost, where you're located now, runs cPanel software, but it's their own modified version of it. So if you like their control panel and you're comfortable with it, look for other hosts that run cPanel as well. They won't be exactly the same, but should be similar enough for you to be running quickly (others are Plesk and Direct Admin, just so you know). Plus a cPanel backup from Bluehost should transfer your site easily.

You're also looking for a UNIX server, instead of a Windows one. Lots of people don't realize there are huge differences but there are, and you'll waste a lot of time and effort if you switch to the wrong one.

I would strongly second the recommendation to visit WebHostingTalk and use their search feature to look up good and bad about the hosts there. You'll see many many bad reviews for almost every host (after all, who posts good news?) but how many you see, and the types of issues they post about are what you should be reviewing.

Reliable contact information, active support forums (and an active community of users who help out too) and hosts who are open about the issues they have are gold. Companies who NEVER have problems scare me more than the ones who post messages that say, "Server99 is experiencing a hardware failure and we are restoring users to a new server as we speak." I like that kind of host - because while we would all prefer never to have to see those messages, I'd rather see and know what's going on, than get the runaround from support or chat and suddenly my site's on a new box with different specs.

You may want to ask Bluehost for *specifics* as to what the problem is - server resources could be memory, CPU cycles, bandwidth or other items. It's good for you to know exactly what's going on with your site. You don't say if it's straight HTML or database driven or ecommerce or what, so first find out for yourself where the usage is, then you can show with an eye towards your specific needs. And when shopping around, tell the prospective host, "This is the problem I have with my host now" and let them evaluate the situation.

Hopefully some of this will help you out. Best of luck!

[bobchrist]

I would suggest to get shortlisted few hosting company mentioned here and compare their price structure for specific plan, consider discussing with them about your requirement, go for free trial and make a judgment.

[elaurvick]

After disastrous experiences with GoDaddy, Earthlink, and Yahoo . . . I found nikira.com

It's a California company, the technical support speaks English and communicates very well. The very few problems I've had were resolved quickly, and it costs $9.95 a month. Unbelievable, considering what we paid for the others.

I chose them using the same criteria as finding a shop to service my car. Stay away from the big chains. Find a local company, if possible, that's small enough to care about providing service. If I were in your position, I'd look for something similar.

[ebizer]

Suggest you investigate Web Hosting - TotalChoice Hosting (http://www.totalchoicehosting.com).

Excellent service, excellent uptime, excellent pricing.

Been with them since 2003 and have no complaints.

[Orion]

Some of the replies here are for VPS solutions yet the thread starter started he's only getting 200 visitors a day, unless those 200 visitors are doing something computationally intense e.g. video encoding or using vast amounts of bandwidth I would expect a shared hosting plan to suffice.

The problem with a VPS is unless you know how to manage a server you will need to either use a managed VPS provider or outsource management.

The gotcha with not using the hosts name servers is if they move your site to another server, e.g. in the case of a server failure then your site will be down until you realise and update the IP address in your DNS records, where as if you use their name servers then the move would be transparent.

Most VPS solutions out there are fully managed from the perspective that You (a VPS owner) have no access to the actual top level server where all your linux patches and updates are required to be set. the only thing you have to manage is click update in your control panel, and set it up to back up at your convenience. They are a bit more involved than just a standard virtual hosting account though, but it's reasonable... NOTE: some are worse than others, I would recommend something that's using Virtuozzo and Plesk (from Parallels) as they are much easier at that level to work with.

The reason for the post was they are having problems as an unlimited virtual hosting account is not enough for their site.

I would NEVER EVER EVER host with a datacenter / host provider that would change an IP address on me. Basically you've got to have done some really really bad stuff to have an IP block pulled from you (the only reason your ISP should need to change your site / server IP address on you, unless you requested to update your account) When you have a VPS crash and they move you to a new one (<20mins) you retain your old Ips it sets it all up for you (done it once or twice over the years)... Granted... updating your DNS could be a pain, but if you're using only the nameserver avenue, it's really easy and takes minutes to fix.

[speed]

Most VPS solutions out there are fully managed from the perspective that You (a VPS owner) have no access to the actual top level server where all your linux patches and updates are required to be set. the only thing you have to manage is click update in your control panel, and set it up to back up at your convenience. They are a bit more involved than just a standard virtual hosting account though, but it's reasonable... NOTE: some are worse than others, I would recommend something that's using Virtuozzo and Plesk (from Parallels) as they are much easier at that level to work with.

The reason for the post was they are having problems as an unlimited virtual hosting account is not enough for their site.
Looking after a VPS is the same as a server the only bit that is done for you is the kernel update, all the server security is left up to you as is install of anything you require, solving any issues that occur is also your responsibility unless it's managed.

I would NEVER EVER EVER host with a datacenter / host provider that would change an IP address on me. Basically you've got to have done some really really bad stuff to have an IP block pulled from you (the only reason your ISP should need to change your site / server IP address on you, unless you requested to update your account) When you have a VPS crash and they move you to a new one (<20mins) you retain your old Ips it sets it all up for you (done it once or twice over the years)... Granted... updating your DNS could be a pain, but if you're using only the nameserver avenue, it's really easy and takes minutes to fix.
That's not what I said, I never said the IP block was being pulled, I was referring to recovering from a disaster.

Take the recent explosion at the Planet, the servers were offline for a couple of days. If I'd had clients there affected by that I'd have restored them from backups to other servers in other locations, this would have got them up and running fairly quickly but their IPs would change (you can't move IPs between hosts).

For the clients self hosting DNS then it's upto them to update to the new IPs after I've done the restore thus increasing their downtime over those who use our name servers where the new IPs are set during restore.

[legendsofamerica]

I too, was booted from Bluehost, though I was well within their "advertised" limits of bandwidth, cpu, disk usage and everything else. There was no "working" with Bluehost on their decision to remove my site, but after making a post directly to the CEO's blog, they did extend the time frame from 4 days to 8 days, which gave me a little more time for research, moving the site, etc. I agree with several of the posts above about making sure you compare "apples to apples" to make sure that you get everything you were getting with Bluehost - such as cpanel, server type, etc. I did LOVE them until they kicked me off. I wound up moving to Lunar Pages, primarily because they have all types of upgrades available from basic hosting at the same price as Bluehost all the way up to dedicated servers. In hindsite, that's the biggest problem with Bluehost --they only offer a "one size fits all" package and as you grow, they can no longer accomodate you. Having gone through this before, that's my biggest recommendation - make sure you go with a company that will allow you to grow and offers the same services you are accustomed to. Good luck!

[edhan]

That is the reason why I ended up hosting for others as I can tell the frustration they have gone through. My hosting service provider is good and I have no problem with them. My clients are happy so I am happy as well. Yes, it is important to have the expansion of growth when needed. My provider lets me know when it is taking up too much CPU load and give me advice for upgrade when necessary. But as I have said, there is a price to pay for quality hosting. Nowadays you can find alot of hosting competing in prices ended up having lots of problems for users. I rather pay the right price and not facing the hassles.

[Orion]

Looking after a VPS is the same as a server the only bit that is done for you is the kernel update, all the server security is left up to you as is install of anything you require, solving any issues that occur is also your responsibility unless it's managed.
This is correct, however I've only ever found managed hosting, but even then you still need to do updates, and it's advisable that you turn on your VPS firewall etc. Generally speaking about 1-2 hours with someone who knows the system should be enough to give you the basics to look after a VPS on your own. Again I'm speaking about using a VPS system like Virtuozzo / Plesk. Some set ups would still leave you confused after a full weekend course on how to run them, lol...


That's not what I said, I never said the IP block was being pulled, I was referring to recovering from a disaster.
Didn't say that you said that I was only trying to figure out how your Ip could get changed without you knowing about it. In the Planet meltdown you speak up you would still know about it and be able to change your nameserver IP, negating extra downtime.
If it's just one site or a couple of domains with one owner it's pretty simple. If though you have several sites with different owners then updating dns for all those sites can be a major headache yes.. I keep one (1) set of name servers for each VPS / Server to help keep it a bit more simple, and only recommend a remote managed DNS service for those that want that freedom and control on their own sites and know what they are doing. Again speaking as a site owner it has it's positives and negatives, as a host provider I actually keep track of those with remote DNS and let them know ahead of time or asap of new settings that are required.




For the clients self hosting DNS then it's upto them to update to the new IPs after I've done the restore thus increasing their downtime over those who use our name servers where the new IPs are set during restore.
I tell them up front while the server techs are rebuilding or while I'm setting up the new servers etc. IPs are the first thing I request from the datacenter (or have available ahead of time) so that by the time the server is live their sites are too.. I call it customer service. =o)

You do have very valid points though... There is a bit more work with a VPS, but it is less than a fully dedicated system. My point was that the set up of a system like Virtuozzo will allow for seemless upgrades in CPU, space, RAM allotments etc. with 0 downtime.

[speed]

I tell them up front while the server techs are rebuilding or while I'm setting up the new servers etc. IPs are the first thing I request from the datacenter (or have available ahead of time) so that by the time the server is live their sites are too.. I call it customer service. =o)
You are assuming you've managed to get hold of the person that controls the domain name to give them the new information, unless of course you're managing your clients domain names. Any delay in getting in contact with them adds to the total down time.

[edhan]

That is why I always ask the clients for registrar access to make changes to the domain names setting to have a transparent transfer with 0 downtime. This is done when they want to move the hosting over to my servers and it normally takes around 24 - 48 hours for the transfer to be completed. But I always advice them to keep their own servers until 1 week to make sure it is total resolved.

[Orion]

That is why I always ask the clients for registrar access to make changes to the domain names setting to have a transparent transfer with 0 downtime. This is done when they want to move the hosting over to my servers and it normally takes around 24 - 48 hours for the transfer to be completed. But I always advice them to keep their own servers until 1 week to make sure it is total resolved.

We do pretty much the same for our clients... Good service!:p

[opalcomp]

One other user mentioned my recommendation - HostMySite.com.

As he said, superior, US-based technical support truly 24x7, and very customer focused. I am a professional software and Web developer and have dealt with numerous hosting companies. HostMySite.com just gets it right: Well-trained staff, favorable but not bottom-scraping pricing, powerful control panel features, flexible offers covering a range of shared, virtual, and dedicated plans with Windows and Linux.

I don't trust $9.95 plans - I prefer to pay $20 per month and have superb facilities, high throughput, and great support that speaks good English. That is HostMySite.com.

[DONtk]

http://webhosting.sitesell.com/Don61.html

That would not be a affiliate link would it?

just wondering

They are the real deal and a good host is hard to find

[rondo]

Sorry. Ignore this.

[carenstanley]

Lunar Pages has not failed me in many years. I have used them since 2002 I think. They offer a 1500GB of storage and bandwidth is huge as well... 15,000GB!! You can also choose from windows or linux based hosting servers, you get wordpress and other popular blogs and cms installed as you like right through the control panel..

[suji34]

Before you choose hosting you have to check with these

--Reliability and speed of access
--Data Transfer (Traffic/Bandwidth)
--Disk space
--Multiple Domain Hosting and Subdomains
--Server
--Price
--Monthly/Quarterly/Annual Payment Plans
i got my hosting from here http://www.xnynz.com/xyz/web-hosting-legacy/ (http://www.xnynz.com/xyz/web-hosting-legacy/) which provides me good service..

[denniel]

You have to make some research before selecting a reliable hosting company. search Google. you can try justhost read there user feedback that will help you a lot.

[Vorskla]

Good companies are serverpoint and happy-hosting.
You may have deals with them with no hesitations because of their top-notch services which are not pricey!

[aditd]

I go with micfo.com and knowhost.com. All good for me ... also coupons and deals available ( just have to look for them ).