Hosting?

[Juvanescence]

Right then the time has come for me to become more professional and to buy my own domain name and also get someone to host it for me.

Im new to this and would like a few pointers as to what I need. I would only need a simple html site, and maybe one day a flash site. What would you recommend for these types of site.......

:unsure:

[Palmer]

This would be a perfect question for HostingOutpost.com. Wish I had it developed for you to ask it there :(

For a portfolio site you need very little bandwidth transfer and not a whole lot of disk space. A good spot to get some info and find out costs is by using the search wizard at FindMyHosting.com For my web design site I have 25 megs of disk space. You can probably start out with 10. For bandwidth transfer I have 200 mb but I've never gotten close to that limit. 100mb would be fine for me.

http://www.findmyhosting.com/searchwizard.asp

The best thing to do is go to the hosts forum and see what the customers are saying. If they don't have a forum, I would be a little leary.

[FTIGraphix]

I use http://www.mysitespace.com. Great customer service, and a forum to answer all pre-signup, after signup questions. Their lowest priced package is $3.33 a month and that's for about 200MB and 4GB transfer.

[toddski07]

Just to throw in my two cents....you all designed for me....and now I will provide some "technical" knowledge/opinion.

The hosting world is full of options and the thing you need to consider is what is most important to you from your hosting provider. Is it cheap prices, lots of features, storage and bandwidth capacity, 24/7 TRUE customer service, stability/realiability/uptime, flexibility in plans, etc. etc. The list goes on and on. I know you said you are new to this arena so you probably haven't even had a chance to think about all this "stuff".

Something to keep in mind...everyone always looks for a "Cheap Low-cost" web host. Well...remember...you usually get what you pay for. Paying $5/mnth versus $20/mnth (or even more) may seem like a great deal but if your site is down and/or having problems when a potential client is reviewing your posted designs or when trying to visit your site from a referral....you may experience a LARGER loss from this opportunity than the small change you are saving on monthly hosting fees. Trust me...this happens and I hear people giving out their sob stories all the time on other webmaster forums. It just makes me laugh that someone tries to save a buck on their hosting when one "client project" could pay for an entire year of hosting with a more reputable and stable host. Oh well....but I think you catch my drift.

Also, be somewhat leary of any site that says they are an "independent" web host review source. "Independent" is something that hardly exists in the online world in my opinion. They are a good place to start but just be aware of how the "list" is presented. If it is not A to Z then why is one listed higher than another...yada yada. Palmer had a good suggestion...check out the forums of the users of the hosting company you are looking at. If they don't have a forum...then I would question it. Also, some hosts probably moderate their forums so you might not hear the gruff and rumblings of customers. If you are lucky to find a host that is top notch...they will let customers share honest opinions and not be afraid to respond and make things public. Nobody should worry about hiding things.

Now for my personal recommendation:

Crystaltech ( www.crystaltech.com (http://www.crystaltech.com) )

Well, i have researched and tested many different web hosts out there over the past several years. After much frustration and hair pulling I believe I have found the holy grail of webhosts (according to MY needs). I have been hosting all my client websites with www.crystaltech.com (http://www.crystaltech.com)for over the past 18 months. I have absolutely nothing but positive things to say about them in general. What sets them apart is their reliability and their customer service. I called them at 3AM on a Sunday just to see if I would really get a tech support person...and guess what I did. Not just some note taker...but a real technician. They have a very active user forum and you can read all about what people say. No web host is perfect...but they are darn close to perfect for me.

Crystaltech is something like the 8th largest windows hosting company according to a recent NetCraft survey/study. You probably have not heard of them because they do not spend their money on advertising and they are not plastered all over the internet web host recommendation sites...instead about 70% come from referrals from existing HAPPY customers. The money they save on not advertising is used to invest in their services. They offer a good deal of features on their various shared hosting plans. They are a Windows host and that is their focus. They offer ASP/ASP.NET and also CF5/CFMX. Not only do they have a strong following of Microsoft developers/users but many cold fushion and flash developers also host sites with them. They just recently added PHP support to their hosting plans. I'll spare you the details...you can check them out yourself on their site.

Ok...enough praise for now. Whewwwww. Thanks for letting me share my two cents.

Best of luck selecting a host.
Todd

[motiveX]

Hey Todd-

I checked out CrystalTech...since I had heard of this company before and never chose to go that route, because you can get a whole lot more for much cheaper than they offer and with a quality company...it is simply a matter of finding THAT company, which suits your specific needs.

The whole means of you get what you pay for CAN be very true, but in the case of hosting providers it comes down to drawing in new clients. Once you have that client base, word-of-mouth then enables you to cease the spending of money to market your product.

Case in point is HostRocket (my host) who advertises a bit, but also has killer deals that they run every few months to attract users to sign-up. As a client you receive notice of this, and they use your word-of-mouth to inform others who are in search of a quality host to lead them in the direction of one of the current deals they are offering.

Everyone has their preferences, and myself personally will not go anywhere outside of Hostrocket for personal accounts and I tend to lead BIG NAME clients to Media Temple. Those guys are expensive, but very impressive.

[toddski07]

Originally posted by xteriormotive@May 13 2003, 02:06 PM
you can get a whole lot more for much cheaper than they offer and with a quality company...it is simply a matter of finding THAT company, which suits your specific needs.
xteriormotive-

We both agree that it is simply a matter of finding THAT company which suits your specific needs. There is definitely more than one great hosting company out there and it is useful for us to all share our personal experiences...heck that is why places like this are a great resource.

I would think it is a safe assumption to say that MOST (not saying all) hosting clients do not even come close to maximizing what their various plans offer whether it be in hosting space, bandwidth, features, components, etc. So finding a host that offers "a whole lot more for much cheaper" is really a trivial point...unless it comes down to your personal dollars and/or a specific need. Hosting companies that offer unreal amounts of storage, bandwidth, or unlimited this and that are purely using it for a marketing tool. Not saying this is bad at all...but as a developer I don't need a host that offers 10 components that all do the same thing just so they can advertise that they offer all these components available. I think you know what i mean when saying alot of the stuff is fluff...regardless of the hosting company...crystaltech included.

Like i said...we agree in principal...there are several hosts out there that more than meet the needs of different people. I think it is great we can share our personal experiences with each other.

Todd

[Mike]

I'll host any of the designers here for free.

[motiveX]

Originally posted by naramation@May 13 2003, 06:07 PM
I'll host any of the designers here for free.
:blink: :unsure:

[Mike]

:huh:

[Zoe]

j-design, also remember that when you are looking for space - you might find that 10mb simply isn't enough. Once you have your website up you will need extra space to put your clients demo sites up, logos, templates etc... It all adds up. You will need a decent amount of bandwidth as you will be uploading files all the time etc...

I will recommend Refhost www.refhost.com as I used to host my site with them for 2 years (changed to an australian provider to eliminate time difference) Their tech support would respond to me by email within 3 hours. They have recently set up an online support center for all questions where the tech support all respond from.

Refhost is one of the best I have dealt with for price AND service AND minimal downtime.

[platinum]

For something reliable, I would not go for anything under $5US per month (most of the $2/month hosts are jokers ;))

Be weary of plans that seem too good to be true (because they usually are), don't go for "unlimited" plans.

You won't need a giant plan to start with, 50-100mb space and probably a gig or two of bandwidth will last you for a while, once you need more just ask the host and it's simple for them to just adjust the quota (and your bill ;)).

Test out the control panel, I quite like CPanel personally, but they all do the same thing more or less. Check out that their support is good, maybe send a pre-sales email or something like that. Also do a search at www.webhostingtalk.com - don't beleive everything you read over there, but sometimes it can give you a good idea of how they handle themselves :)