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Finding Decent Unix Server Hosting?
joesao asks: "I've hosted my website and a number of others at Communitech for 4 years now and I've enjoyed affordable, quality Unix hosting that has given me no headaches. Recently they have been bought out and the service has completely deteriorated. The online forums are on fire with people pledging to leave, calling in and taping conversations, and so forth. So now I'm searching for a decent Unix host. My requirements aren't too bad: I need PHP, MySQL, the ability to configure my server somewhat (htpasswd, htaccess), raw log files, SSH, FTP, crontab, decent bandwidth (~10 GB), POP accounts, around 300 MB disk space (I host the bulk of my images/videos elsewhere)... and I wouldn't mind paying what I pay for DSL every month (~$50). That excludes buying a T1 for my house. And I don't mind what flavor of Unix/Linux it runs on, as long as it just works (wouldn't mind XServe, either). I'm having trouble finding credible sites with rankings out there so I ask the Slashdot community for help. Any recommendations?"
http://www.csoft.net
*ssh, cvs, openbsd/freebsd/redhat, 1gig storage.... 25$/month unlimited userconfigureable subdomains... etc..
excellent service....
just check out their site too learn more.
-Frank
What you describe would cost you less than $30/month at BSDWebhosting.net... less than $20/month if your bandwidth description is a maximum you must have available, rather than what you continuously use. I have never used BSDWebhosting.net for a large site, and don't know how well their services scale up... but I use them for a large handful of small sites, and have never been so pleased with a hosting company.
I've had this sig for three days.
VenturesOnline
Depending on your needs, they have standard virtual hosting packages, as well as bigger "bulk hosting" packages (host/resell a bunch of different sites on your own). They also have virtual servers and full server offerings. Support is great and always very fast, and I find the prices very reasonable. There is also a fairly active user community forum for trading tips and such.
They have PHP, MySQL,
I've been there over a year now and am very happy.
Google doesn't index user sigs, so stop trying to "Google Bomb" with them.
Hi,
Sorry I don't have a good recommendation. I would recommend however staying as far away as possible from Interland and its daughter subsidiaries.
I personally love the colo company we use. They are called ColoGuys I belive he is offering what you are looking for or will be very soon.
They host our server as well as several others, most notoriously Megatokyo and Aniverse.
Bad Panda! No Bamboo for you! In matters of importance ACs will not be responded to. Want to say something critical,OK
www.tera-byte.com
I've been very happy with them. Mysql/php, etc.
I'm only on a shared server (its all i need), but they offer dedicated servers, too.
Here are thier virtual server plans, seems to fit what you are looking for:
http://www.tera-byte.com/hosting.html
FYI, I have plan 4U.
"The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground." - Thomas Jefferson
I've used RackShack for the last year. They are a little more expensive than you listed ($99/mo), but you get your own machine (Celeron 1.3, 512MB RAM, 60GB drive) and 400GB of monthly bandwidth.
- Tony
http://pwrhosting.net/
i've been using them for a while. great service
simple rundown of prices you'd be looking at
NB500
500MB Disk Space
5000MB Data Transfer
$15.95 per Month
NB750
750MB Disk Space
7500MB Data Transfer
$17.95 per Month
NB1000
1000MB Disk Space
10000MB Data Transfer
$20.95 per Month
NB1500
1500MB Disk Space
15000MB Data Transfer
$25.95 per Month
NB2000
2000MB Disk Space
20000MB Data Transfer
$30.95 per Month
NB3000
3000MB Disk Space
30000MB Data Transfer
$35.95 per Month
hsould meet your requirements. they're really quick and if you play yearly (or six monthly) they have some discounts. i also believe they give you the domain registration free when you host with them (IIRC).
hope that helps
WTPOUAWYHTTOTWPA
What's the point of using acronyms when you have to type out the whole phrase anyways?
John advertises his business and responds to queries over at K5. $65/mo for a FreeBSD jail, $75/mo for a Linux virtual machine running under (I think) VMWare. He gives discounts to free software developers.
There are lots of positive testimonials .
[ed. note: in the following text, former FreeBSD developer Mike Smith gives his reasons for abandoning FreeBSD]
When I stood for election to the FreeBSD core team nearly two years ago, many of you will recall that it was after a long series of debates during which I maintained that too much organisation, too many rules and too much formality would be a bad thing for the project.
Today, as I read the latest discussions on the future of the FreeBSD project, I see the same problem; a few new faces and many of the old going over the same tired arguments and suggesting variations on the same worthless schemes. Frankly I'm sick of it.
FreeBSD used to be fun. It used to be about doing things the right way. It used to be something that you could sink your teeth into when the mundane chores of programming for a living got you down. It was something cool and exciting; a way to spend your spare time on an endeavour you loved that was at the same time wholesome and worthwhile.
It's not anymore. It's about bylaws and committees and reports and milestones, telling others what to do and doing what you're told. It's about who can rant the longest or shout the loudest or mislead the most people into a bloc in order to legitimise doing what they think is best. Individuals notwithstanding, the project as a whole has lost track of where it's going, and has instead become obsessed with process and mechanics.
So I'm leaving core. I don't want to feel like I should be "doing something" about a project that has lost interest in having something done for it. I don't have the energy to fight what has clearly become a losing battle; I have a life to live and a job to keep, and I won't achieve any of the goals I personally consider worthwhile if I remain obligated to care for the project.
Discussion
I'm sure that I've offended some people already; I'm sure that by the time I'm done here, I'll have offended more. If you feel a need to play to the crowd in your replies rather than make a sincere effort to address the problems I'm discussing here, please do us the courtesy of playing your politics openly.
From a technical perspective, the project faces a set of challenges that significantly outstrips our ability to deliver. Some of the resources that we need to address these challenges are tied up in the fruitless metadiscussions that have raged since we made the mistake of electing officers. Others have left in disgust, or been driven out by the culture of abuse and distraction that has grown up since then. More may well remain available to recruitment, but while the project is busy infighting our chances for successful outreach are sorely diminished.
There's no simple solution to this. For the project to move forward, one or the other of the warring philosophies must win out; either the project returns to its laid-back roots and gets on with the work, or it transforms into a super-organised engineering project and executes a brilliant plan to deliver what, ultimately, we all know we want.
Whatever path is chosen, whatever balance is struck, the choosing and the striking are the important parts. The current indecision and endless conflict are incompatible with any sort of progress.
Trying to dissect the above is far beyond the scope of any parting shot, no matter how distended. All I can really ask of you all is to let go of the minutiae for a moment and take a look at the big picture. What is the ultimate goal here? How can we get there with as little overhead as possible? How would you like to be treated by your fellow travellers?
Shouts
To the Slashdot "BSD is dying" crowd - big deal. Death is part of the cycle; take a look at your soft, pallid bodies and consider that right this very moment, parts of you are dying. See? It's not so bad.
To the bulk of the FreeBSD committerbase and the developer community at large - keep your eyes on the real goals. It'
MT is all you will ever need.
Media Temple.
k10k uses MT, by the way.
I strongly recommend Dreamhost.com.
They have all that you've specified and it's under $20 a month to boot.
I've been with them for the past year, and I've been very impressed.
:wq
I've been very happy w/ Futurequest
Ever since I moved over to Dreamhost I've been as pleased as punch.
PHP, MYSQL, Apache, .htaccess, ssh1/2, telnet, pop3, stmp, webmail, personal jabber servers, options for CVS, https, streaming media, an outstanding customer service dept, and I could go on for days.
best web host ever
I recently got an account at AddAction.net. I haven't been with them very long, so I can't tell you how good their customer service is. On the other hand, I haven't had to deal with their customer service. Their facilities are pretty good, the only thing I don't like about them is the paucity of their subdomain service. And the price is right, too; $9.95 special for a 6 month trial period.
Me and a couple of friends share a co-located server from John Companies and have loved the service we received from them so far.
If you use a portion of your coloc to host your open source project, you can get the coloc for $45 USD a month. For that, you get the following:
- root on your own server
- Full Linux Filesystem
- 4 gigs disk - Up to 10 IPs
- 40 Gigs transfer / Month
- Firewall access
- Unlimited tech support
- They supply the hardware
Having root on your own machine is one of the better features of this service. You install what you need, configure it to your needs. No hassle, no questions. There are a lot of services out there like this, but this is the cheapest, with the highest customer ratings that I have found.Just an idea.
I have enjoyed Eryxma.com's hosting. I have had service for about one year and don't have a single complaint. The CEO even gave me his AIM screename! Now the company is larger and he is more busy, but he is still very pleasant. The forums are active, and anything I've ever asked for I've gotten.
I can't say whether they have all of the things you requested... but they are worth a look.
What comes first, finding a teacher or becoming a student?
They basically offer unlimited everything. I'm serving photo albums with full-res. digital pictures (family stuff if you're wondering) and the one time I ran out of space I simply asked for more and they happily gave it to me. Throughput isn't always the best, but it is fine for my needs.
Check your local area - I'm quite happy with my local ISP, lmi.net. They are very geek friendly (run a server? no problem. NAT? we don't care. Blocked ports? no. Static IP? that's all we offer...) but without customers the locals will disappear.
If you don't have a local ISP that meets your needs try Pair (pair.com host of Tom's Hardware, Perl Review, etc.) or Hurricane Electric (he.net). I don't use either but have heard some good comments about both.
~~~~~~~
"You are not remembered for doing what is expected of you." - Atul Chitnis
Yahoo offers such a package for $19.95. The servers are powerful and there is always enough bandwidth. You could even avoid being Slashdotted, unless you PHP/MySQL scripts are a mess.
Important note: They do NOT offer cron with this package.
My host is www.lusodigital.com... the webpage is in portuguese, but its actually part of an american group called Everlasting LLC.
I have no idea where the servers are located though, or what hosting companies this american group has on the other side of the pond.
they offer redhat virtual servers, I get root on my own system to do with as I wish. They don't have much in the way of restrictions and cost me about US$29.95/month. I run a number of sites on mine, and get about 2Gig storage and 15Gig transfer. As for support, they have been excellent(even sent me a penguin calender for christmas), with quick response to all issues, they even called me directly when I left a trouble ticket at 10pm to get more details. I've enjoyed their service and suggest it for anyone
www.rosehosting.com
enjoy.
On Arrakis: early worm gets the bird. Magister mundi sum!
I've been using DigitalSpace for about a year now, and have no complaints whatsoever. Whenever I've needed to make changes to my account, they're quick to respond, and quite helpful. They're decently priced and support everything you pointed out.
Definitely worth checking out!
Experiments must be reproducible; they should all fail in the same way.
I've been using them for a couple of years now, and been very satisfied. Pretty much exactly what you describe as your requirements, for $25/mo ("standard v-host"). They've got both Linux and BSD servers; I get the feeling that the admins prefer BSD, but I can't see any difference in level of support.
Their admin tool is command line, rather than a web "control-panel", which means you need to ssh into your account (no telnet) to change stuff. That suits me, may not you.
You can't upload your site via ftp; I think the only supported ftp access is anoymous download -- i.e. you can run an ftp repository. Use scp or rsync over ssh to upload.
I've been really happy with them. Tech support is by email, but I usually get a response within 5 minutes to half an hour at any time of the day. The support forums are also very good. They do both shared and dedicated hosting.
Check them out at 100megswebhosting.com.
He who laughs last is stuck in a time dilation bubble.
They run a product called FreeVSD which is a kind of virtual root system. You can modify about half of the system (apache configs, some Sendmail settings, global procmail stuff) not including most of the system files and additions to the /etc/rc.* directories.
Out of the box they support:
My only big bummer with them is that they don't have perl 5.6.x or higher and they don't support IMAP; thank to the non-editing of the /etc/rc.* directories, I can't install it either.
The price is nice. I'm paying $49 a month for the virtual root, 15 Gigs of bandwidth, and have 3 gigs (I think; might be more) of disk space.
Their support hasn't been that helpful, but to be fair I hit them with some really nasty questions that their system probably doesn't support. Mainly, upgrading Perl and mod_perl to use Perl 5.6.1.
There's so little difference between politics and jihad lately...
Their service is fantastic, their servers are fast and stable, and they use qmail. ;)
So why am I posting a promo anonymously? I work for another host.
Yeah, it's that good. I'd use FutureQuest over my free employee account any day of the week.
I've had a many-year-long relationship with Pair Networks, and am a huge fan with several hosting accounts.
Pair's one of the oldest and most respected hosting companies out there. They've got ridiculous amounts of bandwidth, and are very generous with hosting allowances.
For example, you can add as many domains under a single $30/mo "Webmaster" account as you'd like for an additional $1 apiece, and their $30/mo account has a 600mb allowance.
Their servers are running FreeBSD, and they allow shell access and custom binaries (custom-compiled PHP, for instance) on their Advanced and higher accounts.
Can't recommend them highly enough.
I have been working with burton hosting for about a year now and have had nothing but success and glowing appreciation. I have around a dozen domains running with them and have had NO complaints. Tech support is more than knowledgeable and prompt. With MSN and ICQ supported for online support I have never needed to call. All the latest hosting features supported and it is extremely affordable.
Boredom's not a burden anyone should bear.
Check out Black Sun. I can't speak for their basic hosting plans (we're actually co-locating our gear there), but the guys there are good to work with and know what they're talking about. In terms of their gear, they host mostly on Cobalt Raq boxes, with MySQL, PHP, etc. And hey, they're Canadian, so you can benefit from the usually crappy exchange rate. <flamebait>Unless you're one of those drooling hyper-patriotic idiots who refuses to have anything to do with Canada because we didn't send troops to Iraq. In that case, go back to your plate of "Freedom Fries" and flip the TV back to Fox News. Sorry for offending you (hey, I'm Canadian, I have to apologize!).</flamebait> (Kidding - mostly) :-)
Corporate Jenga: You take a blockhead from the bottom and you put him on top...
...hardware and software, and rent the rackspace, power, and bandwidth.
You'll have root access to your machine(s), with full control over whatever software infrastructure you might need, now and in the future. Your choice of OS, distribution, server software, scripting, mail services, etc.
The co-location facility can supply tape backup rotation or other tasks that require physical presence.
I've been doing this for four years (most recent uptime 485 days and counting) and have been very happy with the arrangement.
Babies are cute because they have to be.
...my website priority is not mission-critical (yet). So I looked for the cheapest thing I could find.
Got it from webhostingfactory. I have 1GB of space, 5GB of bandwidth per month, Perl, PHP, MySQL, shell access, FTP, stats, POP/IMAP/webmail. I can configure and administer up to 100 users in my webspace, give them all email accounts and web pages. I can even log in through SSH and read my email or do a quick page edit in vi.
Price? It was $19.95 per year. Was a little unstable the first month, but has been going for five months rock-steady. Isn't a colo or virtual server, but for my purposes it is perfect.
...
glypto.com has the following plan that fits your needs. They have excellent routing (probably in the same building as Mae-West, though I'm just guessing).
Omega
- 350 MB Hard Disk
- 15 GB Data Transfer
- 50 Sub-domains
- 50 FTP Accounts
- 15 MySQL Databases
- 350 POP3 Accounts
- Static IP Address
- Setup fee $0.00
$ 19.99 per month
Your requirements are higher than mine but for $7.99/month I get 100MB, Perl, PHP, MySQL, e-mail with a web interface and all the other usual stuff. Tech support has been helpful and friendly for the couple of years I have used them.
Debian geeks may find Bytemark in the UK to be agreeable.
You get a full UML virtual machine to play with.
I'm not using them myself, still thinking about it.
I found them via this Debian Planet Article
I haven't seen it mentioned here, but I use ProNIC Host, and I've been nothing but happy with them. Of course, I use a basic little $10.95 / month plan (100MB storage, 7GB transfer, 50 Emails) but they have lots more at very competitive prices.
They also have all the "standard" bells and whistles, which includes:
-- POP3, SMTP, FTP, Webmail
-- Cpanel / GUI-based control panel
-- SpamAssasin
-- PHP+MySQL, Perl, Python
-- phpBB, Invision, PHP-Nuke pre-installed for you
-- Several shopping carts pre-installed
-- SSL
etc.
Very good guys, and very helpful.
--noah
Ferrari and other exotic car rentals in New York
Friend of mine knows the guy who runs it and says he's good. Pretty good prices and FreeBSD machines. towardex
Best slashdot comment
Pair Networks rocks my world. Uber-reliable, great support, cheap. They run FreeBSD and host their own CPAN mirror (they also host Perlmonks, Tom's Hardware, lots of other big sites). I've used them for years for everything from cheap-o FTP-only accounts ($6/month) to dedicated servers ($300/month).
This isn't as much "normalization" as it is "don't take so many drugs when you're designing tables."
I use WestHost and I am very happy with them for the past 4 years.
They seem to meet all your requirements.
Ralph
We've been using jatol.com for hosting our and several client's sites. Good bandwidth, the few occasaions we've needed to contact support, response was great. Support is also available over IM, which is highly convenient. MySQL, PHP, Perl, crontab, .htaccess, shell access on request, and extremely reasonable rates. (I can't recall what they charge offhand, but they're one of the least expensive for non-critical web sites that I've seen).
No affiliation, just a happy customer, so I wouldn't mind tossing some business their way.
This is the voice of World Control. I bring you Peace.
http://www.totalchoicehosting.com
Check out my eclectic infosec blog at InfoSecPotpou
In the Mac world, digital forest has a good reputation. I haven't used them personally, so I can't give a truthful glowing endorsement. But I do know people who have been quite happy with their service.
Apache w/ CGI MySQL 4 PHP Perl SpamAssassin SSH
Plus all the other standard features.. multiple e-mail accounts, FTP accounts, etc.
We'll install any Perl/PHP modules you want, and offer fairly cheap virtual dedicated server solutions (starting at $80 a month.) Our webmaster account comes with 250 Mb of space, and our professional comes with 750Mb of space.
Plus, all the techs here know *NIX. They're smart guys. We're hiring more on right now to provide even better support.
Grue
What is the level of bandwidth availability for the prices they're charging?
Perhaps it can be assumed its unlimited bandwidth at $X/month. But I'm sure if any server with the magnitude of traffic comparable to Slashdot were to move in, they'd be shutting it down soon afterwards.
There is no America. There is no democracy. There is only IBM and AT&T and DuPont, Dow, General Electric, and Exxon
Their website is here
I have hosted with them for eight years,
both personally and also professionally
for School.Net and Sun Microsystems.
Pros:
- Definitely the most dependable host I've used.
- Easy to ramp up more bandwidth, disk, speed, etc.
- Most everything you need is automated
- Very fast email support from a real person
Cons:
- Not on the cutting edge (older Slackware, no J2EE)
- No handholding, so you need to know what you're doing
- No marketing fluff, so hard to pitch to your CEO
- Atypical compared to most large ISP hosts.
For comparison I've hosted on everything from
Interland, Exodus, Digex, Geocities, and Rackspace.
Colossus.Net gives the best service IMHO,
and I'm happy to share details with anyone here.
BTW I'm not affiliated except as a satisfied customer.
Cheers, Joel
johncompanies "linux virtual hosting" service gives you root on a virtual server with 4Gbyte of disk, 40Gbyte transfer/month, and up to 10 IP addresses. I've had my account for almost two months now, and overall I've been quite happy with it. Although they are coy about the software used to multiplex the server, I'm pretty sure they use SWsoft's Virtuozzo.
My "virtual server" has been rebooted twice; once it didn't come back up, and they never did find out why. They were able to get it running within a few hours of my emailing them about it. (They said if I had sent my message to the right address and put URGENT in the subject the response time, they would have responded within minutes.)
Performance is good; it usually takes about 4 seconds to un-tar and compile djb's checkpassword package. The worst I've seen was when it took 20 seconds (which is how long it normally takes my home machine, an AMD K6-2 "334 MHz" with 32 Mbyte of RAM.)
Support is also good, but not particularly fast. They will work on a problem until it is resolved to your satisfaction; they really want to make you happy. But it might take some time, because they offer "unlimited tech support" to all their customers.
One potential weak point is their authentication for support requests, since they seem to just accept email from my address as being "from me", without asking for a password or anything.
With the appearance of usermode linux and vserver, Linux virtual hosting is becoming common, so if I ever become unhappy here, it shouldn't be too much trouble to move my system elsewhere.
PowWeb FreeBSD hosting, $7.77 per month, has been good to me. The tech support is a little squirrely. It took them a week to discover why a compiled Perl program I wrote was not working. They found that someone had changed the OS without logging the change.
Sorry, but you can't pay more than $7.77 per month, when you pay on a yearly basis. I know that $30 per month would make many people feel more secure.
...with Hard Hat Hosting (hardhathosting.com). I have several customers' sites hosted there and their Virtual Dedicated Server system gives the dedicated server feel without the cost.
I've used both Pair and HE and had great experiences with both. My only complaint is that they never had exactly what I needed. For example I wanted to run one of the open source shopping carts at HE. The cart only ran on a very recent Perl version and HE wasn't about to upgrade just for me. I can't really fault any provider for something like this. Their job is to be as stable as possible for all of their customers. I eventually just upgraded our connection and ran on a box in-house but our bandwidth requirements are pretty tiny.
Anyway I found Pair and HE service to be quite good at a fair price. Plus they both support open source by providing advertising dollars to publications like Linux Journal and providing high speed mirrors.
I colocated two servers for about three years at Communitech until about two months ago when I saw the writing on the wall and started looking around. Was told unofficially that Communitech would be shutting down in May, but I've seen no public acknowledgement of any deadline. After looking around both in Kansas City and Omaha, I signed on a cabinet for a year at: Axiom Integration. Nice data center, good prices, and I've got room to spare so look me up at phpconsulting.com. and get in touch. Because I now have surplus rackspace, I'll beat any colo price out there.
http://tinyurl.com/4ny52
Some of the things you're asking for:
Are available from almost any host. The competition out there is fierce and I wouldn't be surprised if you could get this for $12/year. But for that price I'd expect pretty hit and miss service (get two plans at different providers, copy data between and plan and keep control over your DNS if you need to switch!)
Some of the other requirements you requested will probably 'bump you up' a hosting level:
Most semi-decent shared plans will have those features.
Also, you may want to consider a Virtual Private Server. The host server will run several VPSs. Each VPS will get its own IP, memory and will share disk IO and bandwidth. You would get root access with the ability to install your own software, compile your own code, set up cron tabs, init tabs, etc.
There are a few companies that are offering VPS services now, including my own, Rimu Hosting. And our VPS plans start from $29/month.
Whatever you do, A good place to do some research on this is Webhostingtalk.com They have a 'requests' forum that you can post your requirements in and people will reply with offers. You can check the posters profiles and search for meantion of their outfits on the forums to guage how reliable they are. BTW: WHT is owned by Rackshack IIRC (And if you're after dedicated server hosting Rackshack is pretty decent).
We're starting up a company called pdxcolo.net, which will provide true virtual machine hosting in the form of User-mode Linux. We're currently building up our infrastructure, and are currently seeking beta testers.
For $20/mo (post-beta), you'll get:
Beta testers (of which there will be a limited number) will get the first two months of service at half price, or in effect the initial 1-month beta period for free. If you're interested, email beta@pdxcolo.net and we'll take the first N (probably 30) people.
If you don't get in on the beta, we'll send you email when we go live and give you first crack at new hardware as we install it. You'll get your machine fully activated and ready for you to log into and configure usually within 30 seconds, and you can install whatever you need to from our local distribution mirrors.
GStreamer - The only way to stream!
There's a new provider that a friend of mine turned me on to. They provide Linux and BSD hosting, exactly what you're looking for, and more. Their prices are very reasonable, and they even offer lifetime shell accounts if that's what you're interested in. I can often get support via AIM or MSN messanger, and the support offered so far has been amazing. I have a custom-tailored package, so I'm paying for exactly what I need, and nothing more. The storage and bandwidth limitations are more than fair, and buying more of either is trivial. My friend always told me how great they were, and I always thought it was too good to be true. But when I finally got fed up with my current host (phpwebhosting.com, which many people really like, but I found to be unusably unresponsive and lacking) I decided to give them a try, and I would never go anywhere else. They are connected to 3 distinct OC-12s, and bandwidth to or from the site has never been an issue. You owe it to yourself to give them a look. I'm not affiliated with them in any way, just a very very happy virtual BSD host customer.
---
Watch out what else the company hosts. We bought into candidhosting and some domains block our IP range becouse cadid hosts 95% porn.
Just something to think about when you get your IP. See if they will tell you the class the IP is in and check to see if it's on a black list.
hmm... for fun I enjoy launching DDoS attacks against 127.87.42.5
www.svs.com
Probably the cheapest in town. Plenty generous quotas and bandwith. Check them out.
Wealth is the product of man's capacity to think. -Ayn Rand
I run GrokThis.net which you might find interesting.
You can get a reasonably priced account with MySQL 3, MySQL 4, and/or Postgresql 7.3. It comes with an independant webserver, we offer Apache 1.3 and 2.0; however, you're welcome to run another webserver such as Roxen if you wish. We also provide support for mod_perl, HTML::Mason, and Apache::ASP.
They have fairly cheap ($10) web hosting on shared Linux (Debian, I think) servers. For that ten bucks, you get:
True Virtual Host (http:// www.yourname.com)
Support for PHP 4
Your Own Secure Web (SSL) Directory
Your Own MySQL Database
Your Own Standard Web Directory
Your Own cgi-bin Directory
Your Own Anonymous FTP Directory
Direct Access Via FTP
Direct Access Via telnet
Direct Access Via ssh
Gigabit (1,000 megabit/second) Backbone
Multiple Connections For Backup And Redundancy
Battery Backup and Emergency Generator
High Performance Carefully Managed Web Servers
Online Billing Information
POP3 Authenticated SMTP
Multiple POP3 Mailboxes per Account
Unlimited Mail Forwarding
Unlimited Mail Autoresponders
Procmail filters
Detailed Daily Web and FTP Activity Reports
Access To Raw web server access_log Files
Server Side Includes
Full Shell Account
Full Unix Development Environment
Java and Javac
Perl
Tcl
gcc
crontab
Web-based email
(I just pasted that from their info page.)
The only downside is storage. You only get 50MB with the ten dollar package. For $25 a month you get 250MB (and 26 POP accounts).
-B
Ash and Hickory, straight-grained and true, make excellent bludgeons, dandy for the cudgeling of vegetarians.
Sprocket Data Systems seems to be a small but happy group with a couple of decent pipes to the net, and 24/7 coverage (occasionally by pager reach, but still available). I have a dedicated box there at comparably affordable rates. They're always flexible with me about upgrades and additional requirements, and the techsupport is quickly responsive. They also offer hosting and co-lo services as well, although I've not used any of that.
What sold me on them initially was the complete lack of complaints (and unending praise from Perl/PHP developers like me) on thier user message boards. A hosting provider can post all the cool technical features of thier service on thier website, but it doesn't mean diddlysquat if your customer service sucks (IOW, Verio).
Terra, their admin, really knows what he is doing, and is extremely helpful and responsive with user tech. requests. God, he even installed ImageMagick , after much user prodding!
You will NOT be sorry you went with FutureQuest.
But when I finally got fed up with my current host (phpwebhosting.com, which many people really like, but I found to be unusably unresponsive and lacking)
/home volume filling up all the time. My newer account (resolved to a different IP address) never had these problems.
Huh. I was actually searching the page for that name so I could second any compliments it may have gotten...
So instead, I'll present a counterpoint. I've always found phpwebhosting to have reasonable prices and excellent policies on disk and bandwidth usage (basically, keep it sane and there will be no problems. This is subject, hypothetically, to bias about what's "problematic," but I've found their case-by-case method to be effective so far).
I think they have migrated to a new server recently; I actually signed up twice, and my old account got very dodgy, with tons of down time, which I later discovered was due to the
So, if your complaint about "responsiveness" is re: server response times, that could be the issue. If you mean their people are slow to respond to change requests, that may be; I've had very few, though they were dealt with quickly. They spell out their no-phone policy quite reasonably, and at a steady price of $10 a month, I think I get what I pay for.
So, I'm not a shill, but I think the service is very reasonable; I hope people at least put it on their list of things to check out.
try www.digitalinet.com
I have used if for a while. I know they have the majority of the funcitons that your require. And may actually support all the features you require.
Also they are cheap.
I've looked at many of the other suggestions. Is there any one better than PowWeb? ($7.77/mo.)
Disk Space (Raid Storage): 500 MB
Data Transfer/Bandwidth: 30 GB/mo.
POP3/IMAP Email, SMTP: 250 accounts
Catch-All Email/Email Forwarding
24 x 7 FTP Access
FTP Users 10
CGI-BIN, SSI,
Web-Based Email (secure)
PHP4 w/ Zend Optimizer, Perl5, Sendmail
FrontPage 98/2000/2002 Ext.
Detailed Webstats Report
Access to Raw Log Files
SSL (Secure Server) FREE!
24/7 Email Support
7 Days Telephone Support!
DNS Control ( A record, Cnames, MX records)
Flash, Shockwave, Midi, Mulitmedia Support
MySQL Database $10 activation!
Setup Fee FREE!
My requirements aren't too bad: I need PHP, MySQL, the ability to configure my server somewhat (htpasswd, htaccess), raw log files, SSH, FTP, crontab, decent bandwidth (~10 GB), POP accounts, around 300 MB disk space (I host the bulk of my images/videos elsewhere)... and I wouldn't mind paying what I pay for DSL every month (~$50).
Sounds like you're a relatively sophisticated user, so I'll describe what some friends and I did, and you see if it sounds reasonable.
It started off with 5 guys discussing similar concerns to the ones you're having, eg reliable webhosting, databases, a place to put up some webapps... and we kept coming back to "I wish I had my own server so I could" do whatever.
So... we bought our own server and CoLo'd it. Putting together a reasonable (ie, not Xeon with RAID) system on pricewatch put us out about $500, so it's not something I would do alone, but if you have a few similarly competent friends and you can handle the admin tasks, it's certainly feasible. And having 5+ people should keep the costs per person at even *less* than the $50 you said you were willing to spend.
Since setting the server up, we've gotten about 3 new "equity" members who chipped in for hardware and stuff, and we've distributed 20 or so friends and family accounts, most of whom just use email or 5-10M of web hosting. We're almost as stable as the big guys in terms of uptime, but way more responsive to requests for webmail and other features *and* we keep spamassassin well-tuned.
The biggest pain with this approach is going to be administration. On our server, it's basically 2 people who do the bulk of the work, with the other experts chipping in from time to time in their various domains of specialty. As long as you and your friends can come up with a reasonable admin structure, where no one feels left out or needs to be a power hog, then it can work really well. Something to consider, anyway.
I have been with BlastHosting for over a year with no problems. It truly is a geek's host offering all you asked...PHP, MySQL, logs, etc. They even have PHP Accelerator installed to make the PHP scripts run even faster. Every module or addon you ever wanted is probably installed (you may have to ask to see since I know they have more than is listed on their site) and if they don't have something, they don't have a problem installing it. I wanted NetPBM installed to run my image gallery and they installed it within a matter of hours. Support is very good...sometimes it takes a while (usually within 8 hours, most of mine were within an hour) but unlike many hosts, it just takes one ticket to get the proper answer instead of carbon copied responses that are extremely unhelpful.
Both my coworker and I have sites hosted by NoMonthlyFees.com and, with the exception of a poorly rolled-out upgrade a year or so ago, we've been pleased with their operation. Their "free" bandwidth is a little low for your needs (5 Gb/month), but you can purchase extra Gb of traffic if necessary. You'll need to check their site for the latest details, but I believe it is $200 upfront for the first year's service, then $70/year afterwards.
I was just checking this site before loading /.
/.ter
Price $19.95 / Monthly
Web Space (MB) 750MB
Web Visitors/Hits Unlimited
Monthly Bandwidth 30GB
Sub-Domains (*.yourname.com) Unlimited
POP3/IMAP4 E-mail Accounts Unlimited
Domain Pointers Included 10
Additional Domain Hosting Included 5
Procmail support Yes
Unlimited Email Aliases Yes
Unlimited Auto-Responders Yes
MX Record Changes Yes
CronJobs Yes
Sounds good to me.
ps: I'm not related in anyway with then. Just helping a fellow
I've been using cubesoft (http://www.csoft.net) for a few years now. They are not a big-name company, but have lots of bandwidth available, no metering, and very good service. I am a very happy customer with them.
I've got everything you mentioned and pay only $9.97/month for it.
http://www.phpwebhosting.com
I'm against picketing, but I don't know how to show it.
I like OnSmart SmartPriv (Virtual Private Linux servers) for $40/mo.
Daniel
They rock but they don't allow ssh. Good pricing and excellent support. How do I know? I am the Office Manager in the support department :)
100M backbone connection, 2 DS3s for redundancy. Secure facility (fingerprint/card). 1 hour on battery, 12 hours diesel on site (fueling contracts for more). for $15/month you get as many POP/IMAP accounts as you want(qmailadmin/sqwebmail), ssh/scp/sftp access to your account. 500M storage, 10G/month transfer. Apache 2.0.45 with PHP/4.3.1 Mysql 3.23.45 12 months for the price of 10 if you pay upfront. I take paypal or check email mcmunn@mcmunn.com http://www.federalhosting.com/
You pay for exactly what you use. At your specs, it would be $10 for bandwidth and $3 for storage. PHP and MySQL available.
What, me worry?
Another place to get some opinions is the Webhostingtalk forums...
The canonical discussion forum for this topic is WebHostingTalk.
Tarsnap: Online backups for the truly paranoid
Ditto ditto ditto ditto ditto. I use FutureQuest to host a variety of mini-sites for the Fortune "10" - yes, "Ten" (that's the beauty of sub-subcontracting - the customer doesn't care how the solution is delivered, so long as it works). Needless to say, FutureQuest has been outperforming a Very Large Detroit Company's Massive IT Arm for 3+ years now. Simply marvelous.
Makin' money, makin' friends, makin' whoopee and wearin' Depends
I switched to netsonic a couple of months ago, and have been pretty impressed so far. You can have your own FreeBSD box for $80/mo, with pretty generous bandwidth, and root privileges of course, since it's your own box. The hardware support has been good. I had my disk fail on Sunday afternoon, and they were on it within 20 minutes after I called. Haven't really been with them long enough to comment on the reliability of their connection to the internet backbone, but it seems ok. Software is completely your own responsibility -- if you get hosed, all they'll do for free is reinstall a working OS -- so you only want them as your host if you're willing to take quite a bit of responsibility.
Find free books.
250 POP3 Email Accounts
30 GB Transfer
WebStats
SSL, MySQL, PHP4
Member Operations
99.7% Uptime
and from their page
What kind of servers are you using? Currently, all of our Web servers are Dual 866Mhz PIII servers running FreeBSD. Each server has at least 1 Gig of SDRAM.
i havent had problems yet, but i dont use all the fancy stuff.
I want 2D games back.
On their page, they say: " Our steep discounts are made possible by technology that allows us to segment Enterprise class servers into multiple, independent servers - each one a completely autonomous system."
Some stats:
I'm planning to give it a harder workout in the future - running JBoss for some experiments. I'm not sure how that will work out, the free RAM seems a bit low.
For the "casual" treatment of customer security, that's true. They don't have a customer ID# and I wonder how they track all the customers on a "personal" level.
http://www.netluxe.net/
They have incredible rates and awesome customer support.
I use xenonhosts.com for my personal site. They may be a smaller company, but their tech support is incredible. Its very personal and timely. Im definitely happy with their service
At TGI, just $25 buys you a spot on a low-load Athlon XP 2100+ with a 200GB RAID1 with unbeatable internet connectivity. Dedicated hosting available starting at $349/mo.
If you need a fast server and lightning fast download times, please check us out at www.tekgenesis.net.
Try hostingmatters.com.
head -c 120 /dev/urandom > ~/.sig
I like server beach. For $99 you get root access of a RedHat box and can do what you like with it.
I can't tell you about there support though. I've never had to call them. But I did have a quick turnaround on the phone when I ordered the service though, and it was up a lot faster than they said it would be.
I don't personally use it, but I have a friend using ipowerweb.com
The site has been up for about 3 months now and I havent heard any complaints from him. and I'm thinking of using them myself.
Ipowerweb only offers one plan:
8 clams a mo w/1 year payment.
They pay for domain registration
500 meg space
30 gig transfer
PHP/SQL
Sorry, I don't think there is SSH access.
but for 8 clams a mo...its pretty cheap!
Extra bandwidth/disk space can be added.
I can also recommend xo.com for hosting. Been using them for about 4 years now with no problems. Can't say specefics though because I don't manage the account.
-Grump
Is it true that more people vote for the winner of American Idol, than vote for the president? -Ali G.
Serverplex.com has some very competitive plans. Reseller plans start at $15/mo for 500MB/10GB with unlimited email/domains/etc., ssh, ftp, mysql, php, the works. They have good customer service, decent server specs, etc. The control panels they use are WHM/cPanel(.net), which give you (and your clients) access to just about anything you'd need short of root access. I'm quite satisfied with them... Worth at least checking out.
I use and never had a problem with JaguarPC. They are located in Texas.
http://www.jaguarpc.com
They have a special right now...
300MB
$9.95us a month
15 gig transfer a month
dedicated Ip
unlimited email addresses
Shell access via SSH
etc.
I wouldn't recommend unless they worked.
I've been a client of a number of hosting providers:
1993-1994: Panix
1994-1996: Agora (Raindrop Labs)
1996-1998: Hurricane Electric
1998-2000: Pair Networks
2000-present: Voxel.net
Panix and Agora were good for what I wanted from them; I never had any real problems, but then I never really used them for much besides email and a place to store a few files.
Hurricane Electric and Pair are in my opinion the Walmart/Targets of the hosting world. They're fast, they're reasonably reliable, they treat you as a nameless, faceless customer-unit. I would recommend either of them to someone with no exceptional needs who doesn't anticipate ever needing support or special configuration of any kind.
Voxel, by comparison, has time and time again blown my socks off. Their machines are blazingly fast, their pipes are wide -- they're not in any way lacking in raw "hosting horsepower". More importantly, though, their technical ability is unmatched. Voxel staff have written quite a bit of useful management software which they've contributed to the community. They've always been extremely helpful in working through configuration issues; they respond to support emails generally within minutes; they will work on problems with me on the phone, and treat me as an equal.
Their support people are extraordinary, perhaps because they're not just warm-body "have you tried reinstalling" types -- Voxel support are the people who actually set up their network and machines, so they know exactly how everything fits together.
Voxel isn't as cheap as some other providers, but they're not expensive either, and they're certainly far and away the best hosting provider I've ever encountered, and anyone who chooses to use them either directly or through a provider will not be disappointed.
I have been hosting with NPSIS since the end of '99, and I am very happy with them. Check out their web site for the different packages (they run FreeBSD).
www.webhostingratings.com has user reviews of web hosts. I changed web hosts based on what I learned there and am very happy with the result.
I have two websites. www.echarcha.com is a discussion forum and nrimilan.com is a matrimonial website. I have been using hostony.com and they are good. And cheap too. They offer MySQL, PHP, Perl, etc, etc. Check them out.