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Cheap Web Hosting for Individuals or Small Firms?
aliebrah asks: "I recently registered a .org domain for myself and my family and do not have the time, money, or technical expertise to handle all of the administration. I'm sure a lot of individuals and small firms are in the same position as me. What recommendations do you have for people like us, who need cheap Web Hosting, a few e-mail addresses, and DNS. I don't care if it runs on Windows, Linux or even on a Macintosh. As long as the thing works. It's not really an option to use more than one company to host different parts of the domain, cause it's too expensive. Can you guys give us some ideas on what to look for, what to avoid, and how much money we minimally need to spend to get what we need. "
I have recently gone through several hosting companies. I started with pagecreator and finally had to leave because they couldn't administer their mysql server well enough for me to be able to create tables in my own databases. I moved on to cihost just before their dns servers died. I gave them the benefit of the doubt for a while but the last straw was when I was finally able to log in again only to find my home directory gone and them with no backup. Both of these companies gave me a hard time getting my credit card reimbursed when I cancelled even though I was withing the trial period. I have since settled on phpwebhosting and am very happy with the service. Their online sign up is great. You simply fill out the form and they create your account automatically. You instantly have a mysql database with the same name as your username which you log into with your selected password. Within 10 minutes of signing up you can log into http://yourname.phpwebhosting.com which will always be available in case you opt not to get your own domain. They transferred my domain for me within 3 days. You can pay month to month or anually which gives you a small discount. Storage and bandwidth are unlimited and the whole package is only $9.95/month. My site is still very much a work in progress so I can't comment on performance but I recently ftp'd all the packages required to install linux from scratch from all over the web to my directory on their server and then down to my local machine and was very happy with the speed in downloading 145MB. Suffice it to say that I'm pleased with the service.
I have had only two providers so far to host my site (which, as of now, has yet to actually go online, but that is another story). Both have been great providers, and why I switched from one to the other will become apparent.
/. - I found such a site:
My first provider was WebCom, an outfit in Cali (IIRC). Their interface was fast, and they were real easy to set up with. Everything is web based - no need to telnet or FTP or anything (though I think this may be an option). Security is real tight - they don't allow outside developed scripts for CGI, you can only use what they have. If you are setting up an e-commerce site (I don't think you are, but if you want to...), this place is perfect - the CGI they offer is mainly for such a site, with shopping cart CGI and such, plus the option of CC verification. Customer support was great, the best of any provider I have had. They also seemed to have great uptime. Cost for the service was a little high for such hosting (and for what you got), but I think the security of the site and the customer service made up for it. Now, with all these great features, why did I switch?
They were too restrictive.
I _wanted_ to telnet in, FTP in - not as an option, but as the standard way of doing things. I wanted shell access to my account, and I wanted to be able to write my own CGI scripts for my site (hey, if I needed shopping cart software, I could write it myself, or find it on the net). I wanted some kind of *nix for the site. I wanted more space, and any web interface I used, I wanted to be short and to-the-point. I also wanted a place that didn't care too much about what I put on my site, or if I wanted to "rent" a portion of my site for others pages. After a bit of searching, and a banner or two on
Hurricane Electric
I chose them because of these reasons. Their customer service so far has been great. Most questions you have, though, can be answered by reading through the online documentation. This is a site that presumes you know what you are doing - they don't do hand holding here. This is what I wanted (having started using the internet via a dialup shell account back in 1993, I don't have a fear of *nix command lines - in fact, I love them). I have them auto-bill my credit card, so I don't have to mess with billing (they still send out an invoice in my email, so I can see what is happening - and I can check the charges online). I can telnet or FTP in from anywhere, and check my mail with PINE - or I can set up a POP client to read my email. The former is useful for work, if I just want to check up on anything, while I use the latter for home, where I would actually answer my email.
The one thing they don't allow is mailing-list scripts (which is understandable). So, for my future site, which I plan on having a mailing list, I am going to use eGroups, and for my webring, I will use Webring (I could have set up my own private webring, using some PERL script I found on the net, with a little tweaking, but the only reason I was thinking of going that route, was because I didn't know if Webring support Lynx clients - they do, so I didn't feel I wanted to waste time going the custom route). Which brings me to my last point...
It seems like HE understands the net - they don't use glitzy graphics or such for their site - it is fast and efficient HTML - heck, it even looks hand coded (I don't know how true this is), which I like (I detest WYSIWYG editors - VI is your friend!). They understand that information is what makes the net go, that graphics can get in the way, especially when not used properly.
Their prices are competitive, and you get a lot of space for little money per month (not as much as some places, but enough for most sites). But they are not for the faint of heart, or for those who need help setting up a site - go to WebCom for that.
Reason is the Path to God - Anon
I have a few small sites that I take care of. None of the owners wanted to spend a large sum of money so I directed them to Huricane Electric (www.he.net). They have a lot of features and the price is right (starts at $10 a month). I haven't really found anything much cheaper that allowed all that HE does.
- We dream of the stars. Now let us return to them.