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What Are the Best Web and Email Hosts?
GreyPoopon asks: "My wife has been running a small business for a couple years now. She is currently paying for web hosting services for a domain, but has elected not to put up a web site (she doesn't need more business), instead using the service only for sending and receiving email. Recently, the hosting service has become less and less responsive, and attempts to switch monthly bills to a different credit card have been completely ignored, and she's now looking for a new provider. She's interested in both hosting service providers as well as email-only providers that will allow her to use her existing domain name with up to five mailboxes. What are the best choices, these days?"
I've been using godaddy - they are very cheap, responsive, and have pretty good customer service. The only issue I've had is there times when you would want a shell and can't get one....also, the free e-mail accounts only come with 10 MB of mail, but the for-pay ones come with tons more.
I use Lux Scientiae, www.luxsci.com, for email-only hosting, though they do offer web hosting as well.
:-)
I've been very pleased with the service. It's inexpensive, and has a very good spam/virus filter provided by MXlogic.
I'd provide my email address so anyone who chooses them could put me as a referral, but that doesn't seem ethical to me
You can try yahoo - it will allow you to use your own domain to send email from. And it's extremely cheap at $34.95/year. Here is the link. If you want you can always upgrade to a full hosting service later.
[Warning, below is a shameless plug, but that's what the question was].
Well, in one of our OpenVPS based accounts, you'd do something like:
$ ssh myaccount.user.openhosting.com
$ su -
# service httpd stop
# chkconfig httpd off
# ^D
$ ^D
And viola - just mail and no web for about $27/month. There is no limit on how many accounts you host, host a million if you want for as long as you pay the bandwidth. AND there is no restriction on what mail server you run - if you prefer qmail or exim over sendmail, just go ahead and install it, same is true for any server-side spam control you prefer or just about any (legal) software for that matter.
I use register.com. Yes, it's more expensive ($40/year for domain + email, use promo code "domaindeal"), but really I know I'm paying for convenience. $40 is about what I'd spend on a typical night out on the town or about 2 DVDs or 1 day of minimum wage work (in the US). Rather than getting a cheap service, I get a reliable service that has free 24/7 phone support.
If you were a spammer or something, scalability to large ammounts of e-mail addresses and cheapness in bulk would be important (godaddy is great for this). But really, what % of your operating expenses is $40?
-- Political fascism requires a Fuhrer.
I've been using doteasy for several years now. The service has always been consistent, and my interaction with their accounting people has been good.
DotEasy has a hosting option that will supply up to 10 email addresses and 20mb of web space for $0 a month, which seems perfeect for what you're looking to do. I have several accounts hosted on this plan, and it has worked wonderfully.
I don't use this company as I host my own email server (and always have). However, I have heard a few good comments about them and they serve email needs of all levels - from individuals and small businesses to corporations and community groups. Webmail, POP, IMAP, etc.
I can't reccommend them, since I've never had any experience, but I would suggest you check their site out and see if it sounds suitable for your needs:
http://www.everyone.net
I have been hosted by Magma Communications in Ottawa for many years and have nothing but praise for their support and service. Not the cheapest company but superb service and extremely reliable.
Great spam filtering too!
Three Squirrels
One in particular that I've used for a few years is Dragonfort.
Worldzone Pro is quite nice. I have been using them for a few years now. Plus they have support forums, are very helpful, and are very open about what is going on.
Lifetime Residual Income
Man, if there was ever a Slashdot article where damn near 100% of the comments are going to be astroturf, this is it.
Liberty in your lifetime
My preferred host is me. Although your requirements may not allow it, consider doing it yourself. If you have a good broadband connection and a reliable box, running your own email and web services is not that difficult. I started doing it as a hobby just to see if I could and it turned out to be fairly easy to set up a server with Apache, Exim, Cyrus and SSH for access. The only major difficulty I had was once when a hard drive went bad and I was really busy with my full-time job and couldn't bring it back up for a couple of days.
It's simple: I demand prosecution for torture.
If you want reliability, hop over to netcraft.com and check their list of most reliable hosting providers. Then just get some hosting from them.
Cheap, but with control, try something that gives you shell/root access. I would recommend serverpronto.com (29.95/month dedicated servers) but their ip range is in a globally spam blocked range - almost no one will get your mail. Otherwise I recommend linode - no spam issues, and scalable usage options.
Of course this is based on the assumption that you are willing to setup your own mail server - if not, well many of the other messages here should help some.
On Arrakis: early worm gets the bird. Magister mundi sum!
I recommend ImHosted.com. I have been with them for a about 15 months. Good, responsive service, unlimited email accounts, web mail & a host of tools. 3Gb of online storage. Only ten dollars per month, with month-to-month service. Additionally, one of my clients hosted with them and had to do a credit card change. It was painless. When I started with them they were a bit shaky, but they have only improved.
Finally, they offer both RedHat Linux boxes and Winders.
What those who want activist courts fear is rule by the people.
I used to use XO.. They were HORRIBLE! Forget customer Service. Now use OpenSourceHost and they have been great.... Full cPanel Setup, PHP, MySQL, webmail or POP mail... Rare to find a provider whom has regularly increased bandwidth/disk quotas for the same price as the price decreased to themselves...
Just a satisfied customer. Low prices, prompt and pleasant service, and appear to be pretty flexible.
I've been very happy with Lux Scientae. They were one of the few companies I could find that offered all of the email features I needed for multiple domains that I own. They do web hosting as well but I haven't used that.
I've been happy with pair.com for my hosting.
It's about $6/month with a basic FTP account, which includes 5 mailboxes. You can set up procmail filters, and there's a web interface for common filtering needs.
try fastmail.fm. I hear nothing but good about them.
If I was in the market for email-only hosting, I'd be looking at Fastmail. I have a free account with them right now and I've been impressed with their professionalism.
I've had a good experience with lowesthosting.com , though their e-mail space is a bit small. Also, I'm not sure if it's possible to expand your e-mail/web storage past their defaults - 100mb web, 50 mb databases, 50 mb e-mail.
I put my personal site on there, and then used them to set up e-mail for my employer
www.kimvin.com and www.seashoreschool.com
I haven't had any downtime with them, and although I expected their customer service to be sparse, they actually responded promptly and accurately when I had technical questions (of course, I had made effort to find info on my own first; they may have appreciated that). I'd switch my employer's actual website to them, but I'm getting far more web storage with the current host, who charges a high rate for the OFFICIAL capacity, but I've had over 650 Mb of files on the website and never had an issue storage-wise. Of course, we have 3-4 day outages every other month or so (www.emanse.net is that host - use at your own risk).
I've been using a small mom and pop for the last 5 years, but as the prices keep dropping and limited disk space (50 megs), I decided to find a new one last month.
;), 100gigs transfer, admin website, and shell account. Everything is automated, i transfered 2 domains and had them up by next morning. They also offer 5 dollar domain registration. I suspect they keep prices low by keeping everything automated, the mysql accounts (On firewalled db servers) had random username/passwords on different db hosts. I havnt tried the webmail or ssl, but they say its include.
1and1.com seems ok, best price ive seen, so far fast, and the cheapest server hosting for 49 dollars a month I've seen. Seen their ads in magazines, figured for that good of a price why not try it out.
The plan I went with for 20 a month has 5 domains, 200 subdomains, 3 mysql, web email, 4000 megs disk space (Guess not a real 4gigs
The only drawback, no irc bots or chat servers. So I cant host a Teamspeak on them, but they might offer it, I need to ask.
I also think you have to be a little technical savey if they are truely automated, you must be your own tech support.
I play on moving some domains from eskimo.com if this goes well for a few months. Im just hosting gamer guilds and forums on them.
Only snag I hit was ADOdb for phpnuke isnt installed by default, and I havnt spent the time to try to get it to install it its own directory.
If anyone has any info on 1and1, please post it, i didnt find much negative feedback on usenet.
I setup my mom's web site for a little ballet school years ago on pair.com. Rates have never increased and over time they've bumped up my disk space allotment. My mom also pays for the site 1 year at a time, which shaves 8% off the price. That includes hosting a domain, 5 email boxes, 200 MB disk space and 3G/month transfer. You only serve up static web pages, and access the site via FTP only. But for a web site with 6 pages and 10 pictures it works great. I think I had to talk to their tech support once, they were pretty good, but that was years ago. I've also used them for a couple other small places, and never had any problems. As far as I can tell, it just works.
Until we upgraded the OS recently, we had 480 days uptime on our primary web server.
Way to whore yourself out. I rather than using your link I went to their homepage directly. It claims you make $65 CASH for EACH referral. Viewing the referral scheme page gives this info:
Earn $65 CASH for each account you refer! Introducing DreamHost Rewards - the most flexible affiliate program of the web hosting world! You can choose to receive substantial one-time credits for each of your referrals, or recurring credits for every payment that your referrals EVER make to DreamHost! Credits can be paid out via PayPal or check, or applied to a hosting bill with DreamHost.com. You don't even need to host with us yourself!
So how much money were you hoping to make off Slashdot readers today???
I currently use 1and1.com for my hosting, and what I like is that I can tie multiple domain names to my package and can then point each domain name to its own folder. In addition I can setup mailboxes / forwards to any of the domains I have pointing there. I should also say I am on the free preview they were offering in fall 2003 so I can not tell you package prices but what I have seen is inline with everyone else I have seen. If you want to check em out they do have a 6 month free business plan trial going on now, the link for it is:s essionid=E4F40E525DAD49DEFD89A6F8FF280D90.TC63a
https://order.1and1.com/xml/microsite/msOrderJS;j
BTW, many people don't realize how web hosting companies work and how they're able to offer dirt-cheap hosting. Most of the very cheap hosts are a kind of a ponzi scheme - they run an unsustainable business, but because people prepay for a year of service, they get pretty good revenue for as long as new customers are signing up.
Thus it's in their interest to get you to pay upfront, then they could not care less about you. Most of these companies are operated by similar type of people who send spam - the make-a-quick-buck-on-the-internet crowd.
Back when I used to work for a large ISP, we had a few customers that simply dissapeared - they were running these cheap hosting companies, and when they felt they had enough money in the bank they just abandoned their colocated servers in the racks, stopped paying the bills, disconnected their phone, etc. Which is probably what happened to the original poster's hosting service.
I'm using Fuitadnet for my stuff and it seems pretty good. Found them from a popular online comic, so they seem to be able to handle moderate load.
It's cheap and the support over IRC is great.
They also have reseller accounts if you'd like to resell their hosting to your own customers.
DONT PANIC
I use Hostony.com unlimited email accounts plus nicely cheap domain hosting (even though she doesnt need a web site you can always use it for hosting pics of the kids =)
Who let this post through? What's there to ask here -- this is just a chance to plug one of a thousand ISPs. There are tons of forums dedicated to this. Why waste the space on /.?
When it comes to choosing an ISP for business hosting there are way too many factors to consider:
1. How complex will your website be?
2. Will you be using a local or web-based e-mail client?
3. What other services are you looking for (site metrics, content management, spam filtering, etc.)
4. What's the service agreement for technical support (from general services to downtime)?
5. do you want stability, like your local telephone or cable carrier or, are you willing to risk things wiht Joe Hosting?
Heck, the list goes on for ages. If you're a technophile, you'll need less than someone who needs his or her hand held the entire way.
Seriously, you get what you pay for. Don't cheap out, but don't get drawn in by the bells and whistles either.
--- Dan
For my Linux/BSD hosting I use CSoft. For my windows based hosting I use Tactical Systems. I've been very happy with both. I've been with CSoft for something like 5+ years now, and with TS for about a year.
Note: Neither link above has any kind of referer or affiliate junk, just straight links to their websites.
- AMW
I've been very happy with http://www.futurequest.net/
They have great technical faqs (http://www.aota.net/) giving all the details that you need to make your services work.
I've since transitioned to my own server, but I recommend futurequest to those that ask.
Must also answer Dreamhost, especially if you can find someone to share the cost with you. Nothing but excellent service. No kickback for me link to the plan comparisons at Dreamhost. Dreamhost has even survived slashdotting! US$8.00 per month when you prepay for 24 months and could be shared with two other domains.
My site uses Easy CGI. They have email only plans that include 50 addresses on your own domain for under $5/month.
.Net framework, and mySQL.
My hosting package is $8/month, and includes 3GB of space, and 50GB of bandwidth/month. It includes the
EasyCGI
The problem with rating hosting providers is that there are so many of them. There are hundreds that consist of a couple of people and a single server. They might start out giving good service, but flake out when their business grows beyond their ability to manage it.
Another problem is that many providers sell a good product -- if your needs happen to match the way they do business. I used to work for a hosting provider that did by people who liked having 24/7 phone support, edit-it-yourself zone files, and other geek friendly features. But they basically screwed over customers who needed a simple "it just works" solutions for web, email, shopping carts, etc. I had some frustating experiences trying to give decent support to this kind of customer, always wishing I could say, "Look, you really need to switch to a more newbie-friendly provider."
I currently use www.seekdotnet.com for my MS/.Net hosting, and have an account with www.ipowerweb.com for some php/mysql hosting. Both do web and email, both have a nice back end control panel, both have been rock solid reliability wise, both are fairly cheap, and both have been good with regards to service response, i.e. responding to questions and emails. So, depending on your needs, I would definitely suggest the above two hosts.
Th
I don't know much about the service, and the Ask /. post didn't say one way or the other about Mac's or PC's.
But has anyone tried .Mac for personal use? How is it? I'm thinking of signing up. Just wonder if anyone cared to comment on the web hosting and email part of it.
I'm very responsible, when ever something goes wrong they always say I'm responsible.
Powweb works pretty well.
They only have ONE plan though.
2GB storage, 5GB (daily) transfer
$7.77 a month
Frontpage, email, php, mysql they have all that included.
What's wrong with trying to make a little back off the company. It's not like he didn't answer the original question.
Get paid to search..It's geniune and
I've been using AffordableHost for years, and I'm very happy with it.
Verio has some nice windows hosting solutions, so does existhosting.
Verio is in my experiance more mature, they have a better tech support staff and respond the quickest. they also provide MS-SQL server DB's and mySQL, as well as ODBC drivers and asp.net support.
existhosting is realy cheap: $6.50/mo for a linux account, 7.50 for windows 2003, mysql is included and for the windows hosting asp.net and all the goodies...
I'd pop over to WebHostingTalk and check out the reviews for any host you're considering.
In general, you can get a pretty good feel for a host by what's been said about them at WHT. Many hosting co's also actively post at WHT, so you can often see what their support staff is like as well.
http://phpwebhosting.com/. They're quite reliable - i've had to ask for support only once or twice and they were pretty responsive. They don't do phone support though. For $9.95 per month per domain, I'm pretty happy.
I have a BSD jail account from http://www.65535.net/ for about $15/mo. for 1GB disk and 20GB transfer - they have an unmetered account for $35/mo. You have root access to your own virtual server, with your own IP address, and can compile what ever you want for mail and www servers.
hub.org
they are canadian and they host postgresql
back in the day we didnt have no old school
MOD PARENT DOWN!
/. postings.
Editors aren't the only ones that should make money off of
OBSCENE PROFITS!!!
I recommend FreeHost. They are very reputable, as you can see by their domain name. You can sign up here.
Owned and operated by /.'s very own SlashChick, simpli.biz does both hosting and co-location.
I've heard great things about the tech support and they are fanatical about helping their customers.
Mind the gap...
I'm not plugging for referrals, I just like them. They have good service for cheap. Period.
I switched to them a few years ago. In that time, I've only had to contact them 2 or 3 times and always got a fast response.
Check them out.
Good luck.
Be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger.
and by far, the best is readysetconnect. I tried wholemilk, liquidweb, addr.com, Xlan, and several others with my many domains.
Most hosts have their own personal strengths and weakness, like for example, Xlan.org is fantastic if you want a Scoop site, but not as good if you need to have immediate support available. Addr.com is completely reliable, but their plans suck.
Take my advice - go for whomever you want, but make sure they use cPanel. It's WELL worth it, and you can pretty much control your own destiny.
DreamHost. This is hands-down the best web/email hosting service. I have used them for four years. They primarily run Debian servers and have a easy-to-use web interface for changing options on your web/email account.
They have a long history and have been in business since 1997.
Gmail, and configure mail forwarding on the domain.
I host my website at the Utah-based WestHost. It offers GNU/Linux-based VPS (near root access) on all shared hosting packages, and the prices are good. Their support department does a good job answering quickly, too. They even provide a forum where customers can discuss.
I need to host some lists, so need a recommendation on hosting. I'm thinking mailman, but open to others. Doesn't need to provide POP email addresses or web hosting, I'm willing to farm those out to other companies, if necessary.
Don't want to have to pay for a whole box, want the ability to start up new lists and have some control over them - at least be able to alter moderation and stuff on them.
Recommendations?
I'll second Dreamhost (if I'm really qualified to after only being with them a few weeks). I moved four domains over there and have been pretty happy with the results. You get multiple domain hosting, huge numbers of mailboxes, shell access, and more.
I'm impressed by their support as well. I e-mailed support asking if it would be possible to get gnutls3 installed so I could use IMAP over TLS/SSL in Mutt from my shell account there. I got a response back within the hour telling me it had been installed and the support tech was going to recommend it for installation on all their shell servers. Not bad.
I do wish their mailing lists were set up a little better, but I suppose that's more a limitation of Mailman than anything else.
I like my women like my coffee... pale and bitter.
I've used Dreamhost for over a year now, and have been consistently impressed with them, especially for webhosting. They actively work to upgrade their services, and they've increased space and transfer amounts several times over the year (often doubling).
If you want a plain email only hoster, though, I'd definitely check out 1and1.com. They offer an email hosting package for $0.99/month (yes, 99 cents) that includes 5 mailboxes with 1GB space each and IMAP or POP access. Definitely one of the best deals around for email only.
I've used Everyone.net, they're OK for email hosting, but they're quite expensive comparatively and weren't real fast with support requests.
For just webmail, you should check out Slashmail. They have a high level of security, and can host your email domain for just $14/year. It's run by some friends on mine, and they've done a good job of putting it together using Open Source packages. I use it just to offload the spam filtering work to them.
Software sucks. Open Source sucks less.
I've been with Dreamhost for almost 6 years and I second everything positive said about them thus far. I started out paying $9.95 a month. I upgraded quite some time ago to a $19.95/month plan. Since then, that plan has been upped to over 5x the bandwidth, 10x the storage and a whole host of other upgrades... while I pay nothing more. Plus, I pay by the year so I get a pretty spiffy discount. Their support is also top-notch. I even had a couple of the techs on my ICQ list for a while and they'd help me at a moment's notice.
"The object of war is not to die for your country, but to make the other bastard die for his." - Patton
I will check and see how Dreamhost compares with Powweb. Powweb accounts are $7.77/month and allow "2 Gigs Disk Space (Raid Storage) and 5 Gigs/Day Data Transfer/Bandwidth (per day, not month)."
http://skyfirehosting.com/
:)
:)
Yeah, it's my own company, but it's a good one, I think
$6.95 per month, enough space and mail for you, plus we can come up with a special deal if you need something other than what we have. We have an anime mascot. Check us out
If you have a good, reliable broadband connection from an ISP like Speakeasy, then you can probably set up a small server and handle your own e-mail and hosting. So long as you don't need rocket science, you'll get really good results. You just need to have an ISP that gives you a static IP (ideally) and has an AUP that allows you to run servers.
If you do that, then good options for the hosting OS itself would be either the SME Server (from http://www.contribs.org/), or the new version of Clark Connect that just came out this week (http://www.clarkconnect.com/ - I use the commercial version for my home server). If you're not serving up tons of dynamic content a fairly small PC and relatively low-bandwidth DSL line will give you really good results. I also use ZoneEdit for my DNS and backup MX service - that way with backup MX even if I'm down for a while I won't miss any mail and I'll just get it despooled when I come back up.
Another option potentially would be to use a Mac Mini with the 10-user version of MacOS X Server - that'd give you a nice turnkey server for about $1k. But it won't give you spam controls, which both the Linux distros I mentioned above will do. And day-to-day admin of both SME and ClarkConnect are real easy - in fact, ClarkConnect will take care of automatically providing all your updates when you buy the commercial (and cheap) version. They'll also do e-mail antivirus and give you what ZoneEdit offers as an ASP service - though it's not cheap.
-- Josh Turiel
"2. Do not eat iPod Shuffle."
I use GoDaddy, but only because I can't find anything better. Every GoDaddy web page is so cluttered with ads for things of dubious value that I believe that they cannot be trusted. They seem to try to take advantage of the ignorance of people who are new to domains and web hosting.
Why aren't there more "do no harm" companies like Google?
Recommendation: Stay away from DotEarth.com. They've had amazingly serious problems for a long time, such as not forwarding email, and their technical support gives no explanation.
Actually, thanks for pointing out, I was enrolled in their 10% program, which they give out by default.
I was hoping to buy a private jet and retire to a private island with half a dozen of supermodels all thanks to the affiliate link in my Slashdot post, but apparently things might not work out that way.
Anyway, it's a great host, and I would have pointed them out whether they had an affiliate program or not (the other one doesn't, by the way). Since it doesn't cost any more money to those who click on the link, I fail to see the damage.
My apologies if that link in any way offended you.
Linode is great! You get to select which Linux distro you want to use and you get full control over it, including root and the ability to install software or even upgrade your kernel. Yes, it's on a shared server, but it looks and behaves as if you had your own dedicated machine.
I've been very happy with NearlyFreeSpeech.net for web hosting. PHP, MySQL, phpMyAdmin, is the stuff I use. Oh, they have https too.
My favorite thing is that they have a subversion client running on the ssh service they provide, so all you have to do is 'svn up' to upload all your changes. No monthly fee, just pay bandwidth and storage ($1/gig x-fer, $0.01/meg storage/month)
I've also used Verve Hosting for... 4 sites now -- and I'm very happy with them.
I fourth or fifth or whatever Dreamhost. I've only been with them for six months, but they keep upping bandwith, mailboxes and other stuff for new accounts. Every time they do that, they give the same boost to existing customers! Nice touch. Then they told me about a recent flaw in Movable Type that I would have twigged to fairly soon anyway. But that's the first time a hosting provider has been out in front of something like that in my experience, going back to '94 with such businesses. Another cool thing about that warning is, they stated that after a certain period, vulnerable MT installations would be turned off by them to protect the rest of us shared host users. Bravo!
If you want to sign up based on my recommendation, tell 'em egbok.com sent you. And screw the anti-referral police!
"Even if you are on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there" - Will Rogers
They're absurdly good. I've used them since 2000 or so, and have continued to use them instead of taking up offers from friends to host me for free.
Yes, they're that good. See my posting history for a longer review. I'd link you myself, but Slashdot seems to enjoy giving me 503 Service Unavailable messages today.
I have had good experiences with ix Web Hosting since I started hosting my domains with them. The only real 24/7 tech support that I have found, with nice american (as in, not indians speaking engrish) techs the few times I have had a problem with site configuration.
Dreamhost has survived Slashdotting probably only in the trivial sense. The server that serves their web pages is different from the server that servers their customer's web pages.
maybe, just maybe I'm missing something here - but e-mail hosting for 5 pop5 accounts (or is it alias')?
/.
/.
WHY would this question not be rejected with a "google is your friend" reply?
Seriously there are plenty of e-mail hosts out there just check up on them dont waste space on
Note: I know this isnt exactly constructive, but sheesh this is most likely the least usefull ask slashdot article I've seen while using
You might also take a look at Westhost.com. They allow multiple domains in each account. I host 7 domains with separate content in each one (not domain forwarding) although that is possible too. SSH access, no limit on the number of email accounts. If you want cheaper prices I am a reseller. http://www.pipespring.com Put in NOSETUP4ME in the coupon code.
Over the past several years, I have experienced the same pattern, over and over.
Sign up with a new hosting company and everything is fine. Good service, good performance. Then, after 12-18 months things start to go bad. I finally get fed up and switch to a different company and the cycle repeats. Everything is fine for 12-18 months and then goes to hell.
Some comments here mention $50 per month hosting services.
Do yourself a major favor, and get a complete real server from serverpronto.com. Thats $30 per month for 200GB transfers, a whole $40 gigs of disk space including OS.. and unlimited mailboxes, domains etc.
It completely escapes me why people pay so much more for so much less. Before these guys I was with a jvds or something like that, which sells virtual servers for $5 a month even. You get maybe 10gigs of disk space.. and performance is reasonable enough to allow emails, apache and the likes.
Serverpronto went down for a day several times last year, but bandwidth has been good, and I'm not running critical-uptime applications anyway.
What else out there beats this?
"Give orange me give eat orange me eat orange give me eat orange give me you." -Nim Chimpsky
Some of the other companies allow more than one domain on one account. I don't think Powweb does.
Dreamhost (or their comparison chart). 'nuff said.
;^)
I'm on their "level 3" plan, $20/mo, great email support, 3 real live telephone callbacks PER MONTH (never had to use it), great web panel, web email, etc. Full shell, ssh (passwordless!), mysql, php, c-compilers, etc. Really well run shop. 8gb storage, 200gb transfer, 15 domains, 75 subdomains, countably infinite # of email addresses, etc, etc, etc.
I really can't emphasize enough the type of support they give. They got my issues with crontab sorted out (some unix-y crontab guy sent me some tips), passwordless SSH issues (permissions problem), checked their mailqueues when I was experiencing slow delivery, answered my questions about changing the default mailing list configurations, responded to questions about a (rare) database outage, fixed dollar amount ordering on user-contribution pages, fixed initial setup issues that I had in the first day (and more importantly, updated their scripts so future setups wouldn't cause problems). Really first-class support, usually less than 24 hour email turnaround service and you get in touch with "the right person" and I always feel like they've done the best they can do to resolve the issues. (Thank you all dreamhost employees, especially ops and support!)
If you're feeling generous, go ahead and click my referral link before you sign up, I think I'll get some money from that if you sign up (at least it's not a free iPod
--Robert
1and1.com offers both webhosting and e-mail services for extremely cheap. Their basic webhosting package includes 200 email boxes, 1 GB of webspace and 1 GB of mailspace for just $4.95 a month (click here). I've been hosting my domain/website with them and have never had any problems with them. Very professional and helpful!
Besides offering Slash and Scoop they have static accounts from $15/month. Even though I am on the other side of the globe (Australia) I always get responses to emails within a few hours.
These guys are great.
We've good luck and a nice response from Lunar Pages. We've been through simlar web hosting nightmares in the past and have been using Lunar Pages for almost a year now and have been quite pleased.
Their email comes with a nice selection of spam and virus filtering options which can be user controlled from their control panel.
2 cents,
Queen B
HDGary secures my bank
while this may not be exactly what you need, redirection.net costs me about $16/year for the domain and redirection service.
you can have unlimited anyname@yourdomain.com email redirections to a mail account such as yahoo or gmail. different names could be redirected to different accounts, or to the bit bucket.
I also use them for my web clients and have had no complaints from them either. dr2.net's forums are lively and well-attended by staff. During a growth phase, they even froze new signups so as to better upgrade while still maintaining a high level of customer care.
The only caveat I can offer is their recent merging with Mesopia, could change the dynamics of the company. But so far, I'm happy.
Linux, you magnificent bastard, I read the fucking manual!
Thanks
Berto
I've been using hostforweb.com after bouncing around various other hosting services.
I like them. The prices are not the cheapest but generally fair.
Most importantly, they are very responsive to any support issues. Their servers tend to stay up.
The service isn't anything fancy, with most things accessed with the cpanel front end.
I tried a few other companies beforehand, and ended up leaving when I found service and system reliability to be poor.
One advantage to hostforweb is that they are a real company that owns its own servers and you can actually talk to someone on the phone if you need to.
This is a key requirement. Even if email or online chat is your preferred method of communication, you still want to be able to talk to a real person on occasion.
Most hosting companies are only reselling services from someone else. You want a company that has full control of its servers. Ask them if they do.
Hostforweb also has no content restrictions (other than the obvious stuff like irc relays or illegal stuff like kiddie porn). It's important to go with a host that you don't have to worry about offending someone's sensibilities. This does not just apply to porn, but to fine art and medical information, etc., etc.. You want a host that isn't playing nanny.
Hostforweb is geared towards those who don't need handholding. If your basic knowledge is low, have someone else administer the site, no matter where you decide to host. No compnay can make money hand holding a neophyte.
evanchik.net
I also looked to Slashdot when I was looking for a hosting provider. I checked out openhosting.com and have been with them over a year now. They are rock solid technically and tactically. You get root on a virtual linux server, 1GB drive space, etc.
Handy Hosting has never done me wrong. True they're one in a million but:
1) How many hosts will fix a medium priority (there was a workaround) email problem you're having on Veteran's day...mine did!!!
2) How many hosts give you the IM screenname of the founder...mine does!!!
3) How many hosts give you hosting that goes down maybe 1 hour a month, in a bad month for $20/month (quarterly paid), you guessed it, mine does!
I can go on and on...but it's really some of the intangibles that matter in web hosting, such as what I mentioned above that matter.
...in bed
They support PHP, Perl, Python, MySQL (no shell access). I have never noticed a downtime. They never sent me spam. I never contacted them about anything :)
Which is what I personally like the most about a company I work with - I am a sociopath. I hate to talk with strangers, unless when I really really have to. I am glad that I do not need to talk with the guys at my hosting provider. Everything just works :)
Last I checked, Qwest in Utah had static IPs at 1 for $16, four for $32 or something rather reasonable. DSL was 256K for $19 and 800-some-odd-K for $35, or something. That was a year ago.
What they offer in your area, and currently, is likely to vary, of course. I think they are pushing the bit rates up.
I ended up going with comcast for stupid reasons I won't go into here, and it worked out around the same effective price, sans static IP. (At the time, comcast would allow you to attach that many computers on your side of the modem without NAT, and if you checked the addresses they were global -- work it out.) So I figured to use one of the dynamic dns services, but never got that into place.
That was for someone else.
I host for myself on an iBook using dynamic dns on ADSL (see dyndns.org and others). I pay a total of about JPY 4000 a month, so I was initially surprised that prices were a little less than double in the states for dynamic IP. But static IP is a killer in Japan -- JPY 6000 a month for a single address, in addition to whatever you're paying for the connection. (Of course, for a business, that would not be so unreasonable, but for a business it's double.)
and you, of course.
As someone else said, you're there, you have a phone connection and/or a cable connection. You probably have an older computer or two sitting around gathering dust.
First, move her domain name to a dynamic dns service. Many (dyndns.org is one) can provide domain registration and mail redirection pretty cheap, so have the dynamic dns service redirect to your mail while you're checking around.
That will give your wife a stop gap solution while you discuss directions with her and check with your local providers about various things. Many providers will wink at a home business site being hosted on a home connection if it doesn't generate too much traffic. Some providers (telcos?), if you ask, can provide a 256K connection with static IP for something rather reasonable -- $35 to $40 range.
Hardware and system -- make sure you have a NATting firewall, and don't keep any credit card numbers and such on servers with global addresses. I'd go with the BSDs, but any of the Linii should be good on the inside of the firewall.
Or if your old computer is a macintosh, you may well be able to host the mail and (potential) web site on Mac OS X (client) without too much difficulty at all. (Still recommend the firewall.)
For Web hosting, here are some you might consider:
www.glypto.com (no phone support, but very responsive online support, EXTREMELY polite and helpful [they've been over-the-top polite to me and explained *nix things in-depth even when I asked things that would frustrate me if I were them], and excellent reliability)
www.hostrocket.com
www.registerfly.com (domain registration and Web hosting; their domain registration service is excellent; can't vouch for web hosting, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was good)
"Those who consume the bulk of goods are those who make them. We must never forget this secret of our prosperity."
So how much money were you hoping to make off Slashdot readers today???
Sheesh! you should know the answer to that already: As much as the market will bear!
Welcome to Capitalism 101!
For email hosting, I'd have to recommend Securenym. I signed up with them initially because I got tired of changing email addresses every time I switched to a new ISP, and it has been well worth the $5 a month it costs. (And about $3/month for additional addresses, I believe.) The big seller for me, though, was the fact that all communications can be encrypted. IMAP, POP3, SMTP, their SquirrelMail client are all protected by SSL. This is highly important to me since I want to be able to read my email from any foreign network (even wireless) without worrying whether my traffic is being sniffed or not.
I use a host called infinology.com I signed up a bit over a year ago and have pretty decent specs: 9000Mb, 100gb transfer, 60 email accounts, 3 mysql, It's the business tier 1000 I think, but I got it at a special discount sale that is basically 3 times more than what they normally offer for this package. Anyone else here use this host? I've had pretty reliable service and the use the h-sphere control panel, I like this one more than c-panel a lot of other server companies are using.
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. - Voltaire
www.n0dez.com/hosting/
Since it doesn't cost any more money to those who click on the link, I fail to see the damage.
Actually, despite the reassurances, it leaves some of us wondering whether you really meant what you said.
They may have been good to you you but they haven't been good to me nor my roommate recently.
About a year and a half ago they were responsive but they're support has gone down the tubes since. Right now I've got a ticket in asking about an IP address change of the server I'm on. This ticket is nearly four days old now and they still haven't replied to it.
Also, in the last year our server has been down about a total of more than three days due to hardware failures.
Their web configuration page could use some updating and it'd be nice if they moved their ticket system off of each individual box and onto a central server so you can still report tickets if your box is down...
All editorial writers ever do is come down from the hill after the battle is over and shoot the wounded.
Dreamhost seems to allow more than one domain, however, the plans say about "Unique IP Address": No No No Yes. You have to pay $80 a month to get a unique IP address.
For serbian slashdotters, check out ehost
It's great (and cheap too)....
Check it out!
My first paid-hosting was Yahoo! Hosting. It was a little more expensive than other hosting companies but I got my Website hosted on speedy Unix-based servers (FreeBSD) and great technical support. Now Yahoo! has good deals on both hosting and email. For more info about Yahoo!'s promotions visit http://www.dpbolvw.net/click-1574997-10294264
I have also used some other paid-hosting company services (WebHostXL) and... but oh man! Many free services were a lot faster than that! I paid in advance for one year but I switched hosts after contacting them several times. I got few responses. There was almost no technical support there. Eventually they moved my Website and email to another "faster" server but still no luck. They happened to be a reseller of several hosting companies services. It was very cheap until a few months later they raised their prices. So be careful when choosing a hosting company!
I recommend you the following hosting companies:
Aplus
Yahoo!Web Hosting
ServePath
Check your hosts information on a whois directory eg via samspade ... that way you can see if they are a reseller and go straight to the source. The nameserver and registrant details should give the game away.
For example, I currently (until it expires in the next month or so) use studentwebhosting ('SWH') for my alicious.com sites. SWH use Fasthosts as their registrant. Checking Fasthosts, I find that they are their own registrant and have their own DNS servers. Perhaps I'm wrong but I reckon that SWH are part of the Fasthosts reseller program!
Somewhere in all this zoneedit turns up, they have 4 dns servers. Which makes it look like they are a major hosting centre. Checking on their webpage shows that they are a DNS supplier not a major hosting supplier.
Just a thought.
This question is a little like asking "what's the best garage to take my car to". Some motor mechanics are going to "help" you, some clueless newbies will try to help and petrolheads will probably all disagree or want you to be specific about your make/model/requirements. But you might well get some decent answers in with all the chaf.
HTH.
http://ask.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=137848&ci
sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it.
I've been using rusko.us for the last couple of years - I get way too much bandwidth and 2.5Gb of space (of which I use about a quarter!) for 300usd a year.
The problems I keep seeing are:
1. it's a shared server, and spammers keep getting our IP blacklisted;
2. the spam filtering is really hosing the machine's performance;
3. the DNS is on the same machine as the web/Email etc; so if the machine is down, you can't even resolve my domains, so Email bounces;
I used to use DSVR in the UK, they were the opposite - great reliabiity, but very expensive (300ukp for 300Mb) and would charge you for every little thing - adding domains, new IP, SSL setup etc.
I'm leaning towards just getting Godaddy to do my DNS (that's where I buy my domains) and co-locate a box on work's T1 (I currently have a machine on my DSL, but that doesn't have fixed IP or do Email).
#include <sig.h>
this host is great prices, great response, 10 minutes response on all my support emails to them. They are http://www.icdsoft.com 65 bucks first year, unlimited email, a mysql db, 5 subdomains, several sub ftp accounts.
...::----::...
I am in no way affiliated with this sig.
I work for a small company called TAG Online I am sure my boss would work out a fair deal for whatever services it is that you require.
Check out Nearly Free Speech. They have a really neat plan set up, where you only pay for storage/bandwidth costs that you actually USE. In other words, they keep track of what you have stored on a daily basis and the bandwidth used on a daily basis and charge a flat fee per that unit. I set up a site 15 months ago for $35 and still have $7 in my account with them. You can cancel at any time and get the balance of your account back.
Whoever you look at, call their support desk try reciting scenarios described in BOFH articles. Pick something obscene. Tell them you have put seeds and jam in your cdrom tray and need to get your website back up.
You'll know you found a good place when the support desk has actually been there.
10$/month hosting companies simply haven't. Even most 20$/month companies don't.
They have an answering service that takes a message. They'll probably email you later if they bother helping at all. They'll probably ignore you because jam and seeds aren't that funny.
In fact, there are very few 20$/month hosting companies that even have a hand in their own servers. Be wary of a company that can't support themselves.
Chances are, they can't support you either.
I've had a good expereince with WestHost. http://www.westhost.com/.
Their basic package is:
15gb Bandwidth a month
600mb Space
Virtual Private Server
$7.95/month USD
I will however advise there are some latency problems with their cheapest package (average ping 150ms), though throughput is very good.
They have a VERY nice datacenter: http://www.westhost.com/datacenter.html.
Their uptime is ranked by CNet at 100% over the past 56 weeks and I have never seen my website go down.
They have 24/7 live phone support (with wait time never exceeding a couple minutes), 24/7 live online chat, and e-mail support. The only problem I had was when the MySQL server install didn't work quite right and tech support was very helpful and got it resolved quickly.
All just incase you need 24/7 network monitoring, an eathquake resistant datacenter, backup generators (with atleast 3 days fuel), triple connections that scale to OC-48, a private microwave-based backup network system, and biometric security.
I've had serious problems with Powweb technical support. They seem to be VERY immature.
I recently signed up with Dreamhost after doing an exhausting search. I am never one to jump right in without getting all the facts first. Thier service has been great. 2.5GB server space. 120GB bandwith. 3 Domians. 7.95/Month if you sign up for 2 years. 91 day unconditional money back guarantee. Unlimited MySQL DBs. Plus. they have a very active user support forum.
Valuable advice, because I'm looking for a host. However, what was that they said about a unique IP address?
Most hosting companies host with Linux or BSD, and I'm sure the Slashdot crowd will jump all over me for this comment, but I prefer to be hosted on Windows. I've found that VIA NET.WORKS are specialists in Windows hosting and provide great service for a very affordable price, $1.99 per month, if you can believe it. I've hosted with them for almost five years now, and I always get a better price and/or more features every year when I renew. Their website is http://www.vianetworks.net
I have a new nephew as of december 21st last year.He starts crying one day and no one can seem to calm him down, so I throw on nymphetamine and he stops crying and goes to sleep..now everytime he needs to be calmed down I throw the song on and *poof* right to sleep. I am more than amazed to have a child interested in the darkness in my mortal family. Thanks to Dani and Liv for makeing life a bit easier for my mortal sister. Lyssa
I use Simpli.biz which I heard about because the owner used to post here as Slashchick. Cheap and they have always responded to my questions with a couple of hours at most. I have a small business site & also receive email through them (seems to be some problem with sending email).