A little confused, can you recommend a host?

noisedude · 17th March 2008

Hello all, I've been with 1&1 for a few years now and have had a fairly decent experience with them. I host about a dozen websites but use a relatively small amount of space. However, I need a few different features now and was wondering if the lovely people here can help. Here are the features I want:

- Cheap (esp. to transfer from 1&1), easy to understand domain hosting that I can use up to 20 or more domains on
- cPanel with Fantastico OR some other way to get Joomla, Wordpress, osCommerce
- About 4Gb space max I think, probably use much less, but a reasonable amount of traffic because the sites I am developing will have videos, powerpoints, etc and I want to stand a chance of having plenty of bandwidth left over for using it as a file dump for my recording studio too!!
- Never used technical support but if it's better than 1&1's I might
- UK-based data centre for Google.co.uk ranking and speed
- Access for 'customers' to Joomla/Wordpress etc control panels
- Lots of FTP accounts so 'customers' can upload to their own web space

Hope that makes sense, I'm not really looking for reseller hosting because to get it from a decent host will probably be too expensive.

Am totally baffled by concerns over transferring domains, email addresses etc and am after a host I can be with for a while as long as their price is right.

I've been paying about £9 a month with 1&1, am happy to up that a bit for access to all these PHP-based applications and some usable tech support.

Many thanks for your help!

Nik

JamieBeeston · 17th March 2008

What you want sounds perfectly normal.

If you drop a post in the Requests for products and services section I'm sure you'll be inundated with hosts offering you products.

J

midnightsoftwar · 17th March 2008

You will find that most people on here are hosts themselves, and therefore can't really give an unbiased opinion. However, you can post in the 'Requests' forum, and hosts will give you a quote for what you need.

noisedude · 17th March 2008

Thanks guys, didn't realise I was in the wrong forum, will re-post it in Requests!

~Coder~ · 3rd April 2008

Well..
I would suggest you servage @ the price which your paying..
Servage doesn't not restrict Files to be hosted - Image Files or Videos..
Only condition is that they should be legal!

Good Luck!

noisedude · 3rd April 2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by ~Coder~

Well..
I would suggest you servage @ the price which your paying..
Servage doesn't not restrict Files to be hosted - Image Files or Videos..
Only condition is that they should be legal!

Good Luck!

I don't mean to sound ungrateful but I don't think their datacentre is in the UK, which is one of the things I know I want. But their figures surely can't add up - a quick Google shows that people with busy sites get their sites locked off when they have a couple of hundred users a day because their caps are based more on CPU usage than the obviously very high space and bandwidth figures they quote.

I dunno, I guess I am suspicious of anything that looks too good to be true.

midnightsoftwar · 4th April 2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by noisedude

I dunno, I guess I am suspicious of anything that looks too good to be true.

Thankfully! Most people want unlimited everything for 25p/month.

noisedude · 4th April 2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by midnightsoftwar

Thankfully! Most people want unlimited everything for 25p/month.

Don't get me wrong ..... I do WANT unlimited server usage, space and bandwidth for 25p a month. I just don't think I'm likely to get it!

othellotech · 5th April 2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by noisedude

I'm not really looking for reseller hosting because to get it from a decent host will probably be too expensive.

But from your requirements, reseller hosting is exactly what you're looking for

Quote:

Originally Posted by noisedude

using it as a file dump for my recording studio too

For that you will need to be looking at your own server. No quality host is going to allow their systems to be used as a "file dump", and no hosting package is going to come with the sort of disk and transfer allowances to make it worthwhile. If you want an offsite backup solution there are much beter options than filling up your webspace

noisedude · 5th April 2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by othellotech

But from your requirements, reseller hosting is exactly what you're looking for

For that you will need to be looking at your own server. No quality host is going to allow their systems to be used as a "file dump", and no hosting package is going to come with the sort of disk and transfer allowances to make it worthwhile. If you want an offsite backup solution there are much beter options than filling up your webspace

Ah, maybe I have a slightly different definition of file dump to you. I am just talking about somewhere to put samples and mixdowns for the occasional times when it is easier for whatever reason to do that than use a flash drive.

It'd be about 1gb p/m transfer maximum, and is currently less than 100mb and I just use it for putting mp3 test mixes for clients to listen to. A 5mb file downloaded a couple of times, multiplied by half a dozen such occasions where that's useful a month .... not huge traffic!!

I sorely wish I could afford an offsite backup solution if only for my enormous record collection (hundreds upon hundreds of CDs ripped to .wma .... I then bought a Macbook but that's a whole other story!!).

I keep looking at hosts every couple of days but it is tricky to bite the bullet when there is so little to base your decision on. Guess you have to suck it and see!

othellotech · 6th April 2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by noisedude

Ah, maybe I have a slightly different definition of file dump to you. I am just talking about somewhere to put samples and mixdowns for the occasional times when it is easier for whatever reason to do that than use a flash drive.

That woudl be you making files available online fro your clients to access - A file dump would be you sticking 20,000 of them online

Quote:

Originally Posted by noisedude

I sorely wish I could afford an offsite backup solution if only for my enormous record collection (hundreds upon hundreds of CDs ripped to .wma

Its easy to justify - just ask how difficult would it be to replace them all and what would it cost you in time and money ? Now imagine the studio/garage/whatever burns down tomorrow afternoon...

Although if this is backup of physical media, you'd be better off burning a copy of the wma's to new dvd's and storing those dvds offsite - onlien archive is really only a better solution, when it's for data that you *need* to be able to access instantly in the event of a disaster.

noisedude · 6th April 2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by othellotech

That woudl be you making files available online fro your clients to access - A file dump would be you sticking 20,000 of them online

Its easy to justify - just ask how difficult would it be to replace them all and what would it cost you in time and money ? Now imagine the studio/garage/whatever burns down tomorrow afternoon...

Although if this is backup of physical media, you'd be better off burning a copy of the wma's to new dvd's and storing those dvds offsite - onlien archive is really only a better solution, when it's for data that you *need* to be able to access instantly in the event of a disaster.

That's some good advice right there. Might have to start doing some off-site backups. Had never really thought about it like that but if I lost all my guitars I'd be insured - if I lost all my teaching materials and everything related to my day-job I'd be up a muddy creek with a chocolate fireguard for a paddle!

Jon-NC · 6th April 2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by noisedude

That's some good advice right there. Might have to start doing some off-site backups. Had never really thought about it like that but if I lost all my guitars I'd be insured - if I lost all my teaching materials and everything related to my day-job I'd be up a muddy creek with a chocolate fireguard for a paddle!

I find mozy.com decent for my personal backups.

othellotech · 8th April 2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by noisedude

I lost all my guitars I'd be insured - if I lost all my teaching materials and everything related to my day-job I'd be up a muddy creek

get started on that business continuity plan now

it's one of those things you do *not* want to leave until it's too late...

jakeruston · 24th April 2008

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