Any recommendations for servers? I have experience with godaddy but am thinking about going elsewhere for a new site. Startlogic maybe?
Web servers
- Thread starter RotaryWingBob
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RJM62
Touchdown! Greaser!
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Geek on the Hill
That depends on a lot of factors. Do you want Windows or Linux hosting? Do you have a preference for control panels (WHM, Plesk, etc.)? What services will you need running? What kind of site are you building? Will you need a CMS? A gallery? A forum? How much storage and bandwidth? Are short disruptions acceptable in return for lower costs, or do you need 100 percent uptime?
I have to say that I'm always reluctant to recommend hosting companies because they are so volatile. Good companies can get bad pretty quickly (and vice-versa).
That being said, however, there are two hosting companies I have used for years and with whom I've been consistently satisfied. This is not to say they have never had problems, but rather that high-caliber people are running the companies, and the problems usually are solved quickly.
I've had excellent results with VPS on Midphase, but their shared hosting wasn't all that great. It may have improved. Their VPS plans, however, are truly excellent, and they're a very responsive company. Even on VPS plans, where their responsibility is almost nil other than physically maintaining the server, they're always happy to help out someone who is new to managing a server.
HostingZoom is also outstanding in terms of support and responsiveness on both their shared and VPS hosting. I'm lukewarm, however, with regard to the new datacenter in Atlanta (GNAX) they moved to (although in fairness, things are improving). There have been no prolonged outages, thank God, but quite a few short ones resulting from DDOS attacks. There also were a lot of unexplained periods of slow throughput for a few months, but not in quite some time since then.
Some less-than-wonderful experiences:
I used to deal with Apollo Hosting and the service was quite good at first, but then deteriorated. They used the "fire in the building next door" excuse to explain their extended outages more often than I used "my grandmother died" to explain my absences from grade school.
I also used Just-Hosting (that was the company name; I think they are now deservedly out of business) for a while. Their service seemed okay until the server crashed. A bad RAID controller took out the whole array, which does happen from time to time. It's an unavoidable SPOF unless you also use load-sharing. But it took them FOUR DAYS to get the server back up! That was simply unacceptable.
There have been a few others over the years... most of the names escape me at the moment, though, because they were merely mediocre, not excellent or horrible.
But again, hosting companies are strange animals. Sometimes great companies go crappy, and sometimes crappy companies become great. For the most current information, ask around, read message boards, lurk on Netcraft, etc.
Rich
I have to say that I'm always reluctant to recommend hosting companies because they are so volatile. Good companies can get bad pretty quickly (and vice-versa).
That being said, however, there are two hosting companies I have used for years and with whom I've been consistently satisfied. This is not to say they have never had problems, but rather that high-caliber people are running the companies, and the problems usually are solved quickly.
I've had excellent results with VPS on Midphase, but their shared hosting wasn't all that great. It may have improved. Their VPS plans, however, are truly excellent, and they're a very responsive company. Even on VPS plans, where their responsibility is almost nil other than physically maintaining the server, they're always happy to help out someone who is new to managing a server.
HostingZoom is also outstanding in terms of support and responsiveness on both their shared and VPS hosting. I'm lukewarm, however, with regard to the new datacenter in Atlanta (GNAX) they moved to (although in fairness, things are improving). There have been no prolonged outages, thank God, but quite a few short ones resulting from DDOS attacks. There also were a lot of unexplained periods of slow throughput for a few months, but not in quite some time since then.
Some less-than-wonderful experiences:
I used to deal with Apollo Hosting and the service was quite good at first, but then deteriorated. They used the "fire in the building next door" excuse to explain their extended outages more often than I used "my grandmother died" to explain my absences from grade school.
I also used Just-Hosting (that was the company name; I think they are now deservedly out of business) for a while. Their service seemed okay until the server crashed. A bad RAID controller took out the whole array, which does happen from time to time. It's an unavoidable SPOF unless you also use load-sharing. But it took them FOUR DAYS to get the server back up! That was simply unacceptable.
There have been a few others over the years... most of the names escape me at the moment, though, because they were merely mediocre, not excellent or horrible.
But again, hosting companies are strange animals. Sometimes great companies go crappy, and sometimes crappy companies become great. For the most current information, ask around, read message boards, lurk on Netcraft, etc.
Rich
Last edited:
CJones
Final Approach
I use BlueHost.com. I'm not really stressing the server - just a personal website - but they have a powerful control panel and you can actually get shell access with some extra account verification.
RJM62
Touchdown! Greaser!
- Joined
- Jun 15, 2007
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- 13,157
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- Upstate New York
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Display name:
Geek on the Hill
Actually, one of my Web clients brought her own hosting through BlueHost, and they seem to be a pretty well-run outfit. They were very helpful when her former Webmaster uploaded a porn site to her Web space after she fired him for not responding to her messages while he was in jail.
True story, by the way.
Rich
AirBaker
Pattern Altitude
Go Daddy is great... Just don't rely on their DNS.
Make sure you know what you're doing so when their servers go down for 4 hours, your site is still accessible!Seriously. Are you hosting something that is mission critical?
astanley
En-Route
I use Pair for my new business. Love it. Very flexible, rock solid data centers, excellent backup policies and very fair pricing.
I also pay SmugMug to host my images for my business; works out to be about $400 a year for both accounts. I love Pair's service, and Smugmug cannot be beat for image hosting.
If you are interested - check them out. The below link is through their referral program, which does compensate me slightly (for the purposes of full disclosure):
http://promote.pair.com/direct.pl?arsenaleartisans.com+130850
They are based in Pittsburgh, IIRC, and I have friends that have run very small to very large websites through them for 6+ years
If you have any specific questions... feel free to ping me!
Cheers,
-Andrew
I also pay SmugMug to host my images for my business; works out to be about $400 a year for both accounts. I love Pair's service, and Smugmug cannot be beat for image hosting.
If you are interested - check them out. The below link is through their referral program, which does compensate me slightly (for the purposes of full disclosure):
http://promote.pair.com/direct.pl?arsenaleartisans.com+130850
They are based in Pittsburgh, IIRC, and I have friends that have run very small to very large websites through them for 6+ years
If you have any specific questions... feel free to ping me!
Cheers,
-Andrew
JohnR
Final Approach
I can personally recommend these two:
www.emwd.com $4.95/month for hosting
www.allserve.net (pilot-owned!) hosting from $3.95/month
I have stuff hosted on each, no problems.
www.emwd.com $4.95/month for hosting
www.allserve.net (pilot-owned!) hosting from $3.95/month
I have stuff hosted on each, no problems.