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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
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'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
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
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
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'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.
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...
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.
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...
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
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
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."
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.
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.
Seconded, I've had 2 sites at digitalspace.net for a little over a year and have been very happy.
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.