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Web-hosting question for innanet nerds

mannybolonemannybolone Los Angeles, CA 15,025 Posts
edited January 2009 in Strut Central
So I need to find a new hosting home for Soul Sides; it's been a great run over with Sandbox, who were incredibly gracious in hosting the site since its inception, but they're downsizing and given that my site drives a high % of their bandwidth, I need to find some place new. Not having really done this before, I'm wondering if any more experienced folk out there would have any basic tips on what I should be wary of or features I should look for? I can tell you that my site currently clocks in about 500-600 GB of bandwidth usage a month so obviously I'd want a plan with a higher ceiling to accommodate. Someone recently mentioned "grid hosting" to me but I have no idea what that is about and am slightly concerned that some grid hosting plans don't support Java (I don't use much scripting but I do have some). Anyways, insights quite welcome. Thanks!

  Comments

  • ZekeZeke 221 Posts
    What is your budget for hosting?
  • mannybolonemannybolone Los Angeles, CA 15,025 Posts
    What is your budget for hosting?

    Hard to say; I've never had to pay for it so I don't know what's realistic/reasonable.
  • PATXPATX 2,820 Posts
    Your site probably uses javascript for flash embed but that's different from Java, which you should not be using on your site at all.

    Check Bluehost.com or Hostpapa.com if you want to go greener.
  • GrandfatherGrandfather 2,303 Posts
    ughh, im not to up to date on it, but you should look into hosting data with Amazon http://aws.amazon.com/
    i think you could get a cheap hosting deal from anyone for the blog/db part but any media files (mpRAERZ, pictures, etc) could be hosted off of amazon on their host to order service
    i think it saves money in the long run. You only pay for the bandwidth that is used. I'm pretty sure thats how it works. ^___^
  • GrandfatherGrandfather 2,303 Posts
    I'm talking about their S3 service btw

    http://aws.amazon.com/s3/
  • breadwinnerbreadwinner 535 Posts
    I've used Dreamhost since 2000/2001 -- with the exception of a few sites that are hosted on some budget crap.

    http://www.dreamhost.com/hosting.html

    They're currently offering unlimited disk storage (+50 gb) and unlimited bandwidth. If you pay for a year upfront, it will cost you $9.95 -- pay for two years, then it becomes $8.95 per month, etc, etc. Also, there are 'customer codes' for new users that offer discounts.

    They also have a ridiculous 'sale' that ends today --




    Two historic events are here, and we think that having a crazy sale is a great way to celebrate!

    Get unlimited disk space and bandwidth on all plans!

    Sign up today for a two-year hosting plan using the promotional code "4444" and you'll get four years of hosting for just $4.44 per month! What better way to celebrate the beginning of the 44th president's 4-year term?[/b]

    Sign up now, choose "Host a Domain", and you're on your way towards the most features, the greenest commitment, the most openness, and the craziest blog in Web Hosting!


    Don't fall for Media Temple, they're super pricey. Go Daddy is okay, but they're web panel area for users is a nightmare.
  • PATXPATX 2,820 Posts
    Stay away from GoDaddy. End of story.

    In an economy like we have right now and for the foreseeable, bandwidth is not an issue, it will be unlimited and you will not pay more than $150 absolute max a year for hosting.
  • ZekeZeke 221 Posts
    Stay away from GoDaddy. End of story.

    In an economy like we have right now and for the foreseeable, bandwidth is not an issue, it will be unlimited and you will not pay more than $150 absolute max a year for hosting.

    GoDaddy is definitely not the way to go, but I would tend to disagree about the true cost of hosting. Putting high traffic sites on shared hosting accounts is definitely not a good idea.
  • mannybolonemannybolone Los Angeles, CA 15,025 Posts
    I've used Dreamhost since 2000/2001 -- with the exception of a few sites that are hosted on some budget crap.

    I looked at them but their "unlimited" bandwidth offer comes with several caveats. 500-600GB isn't out of this world big, but I'm worried it might be big enough for them to force me to a private server which will likely increase my costs.

    And Amazon's costs are fairly high: over 100/mo based on their calculator.
  • billbradleybillbradley You want BBQ sauce? Get the fuck out of my house. 2,914 Posts
    We use RackSpace to host some of our web servers here at work. I believe their basic stuff starts at 1TB bandwidth per month.

    http://www.rackspace.com
  • ZekeZeke 221 Posts
    We use RackSpace to host some of our web servers here at work. I believe their basic stuff starts at 1TB bandwidth per month.

    http://www.rackspace.com
    Yeah, Rackspace are definitely a good company. They just bought the company that I use, Slicehost.
  • breadwinnerbreadwinner 535 Posts
    Rackspace is for big dwagz only. There would be no reason to pay hundreds per month to power a blog.
  • billbradleybillbradley You want BBQ sauce? Get the fuck out of my house. 2,914 Posts
    Rackspace is for big dwagz only. There would be no reason to pay hundreds per month to power a blog.




    J/K. RackSpace may be overkill but 100% uptime is nice. Like anything else, you get what you pay for.
  • ZekeZeke 221 Posts
    Rackspace is for big dwagz only. There would be no reason to pay hundreds per month to power a blog.




    J/K. RackSpace may be overkill but 100% uptime is nice. Like anything else, you get what you pay for.
  • RAJRAJ tenacious local 7,782 Posts
    Sounds like you need a low end dedicated server. I have one and it costs me $80 / month.

    I have been through numerous hosts and there was never such a thing as "unlimited bandwidth". They say it. But they have many *'s next to it.

    I have been with Sectorlink for around 3 years now and love them to death. They answer my tickets within 10 minutes and their support is not outsourced to Eastern Europe or India. USA!! USA!!
  • DigginDiggin 319 Posts
    I'd go with Amazon, seems to be a reliable service and inexpensive.

    Works very well with one of my favorite online radio stations, StraightUp http://www.straightup.com.au/
  • mannybolonemannybolone Los Angeles, CA 15,025 Posts
    I'd go with Amazon, seems to be a reliable service and inexpensive.

    Alas, they're not that inexpensive.
  • DJ_WubWubDJ_WubWub 874 Posts
    I have been using 3ix
    $3 a month for 30gb webspace with unlimited bandwith

    i have had no problems with them
  • selperfugeselperfuge 1,165 Posts
    Bluehost shredz. You'll get like 300GB transfer at the basic $10 a month package and I bet it's not that much more to re-up.
  • breadwinnerbreadwinner 535 Posts
    3ix is who I was talking about when I mentioned cheap shit. When the .me domains jumped off last year, I bought two and threw them on a 3ix plan. Big mistake. I won't go into details, but just know that someone was able to get in and install code onto certain pages of one of these sites. Once you visited the site, the code would somehow (the code was encrypted) inject malicious software onto the users computer.

    I also have a friend who runs a non-profit in Philadelphia go through the same problem w/ 3ix. Thing with him was that he was trying to solicit donations from large companies when it happened.
  • anasarcasmanasarcasm 365 Posts
    Co-sign on bluehost.
  • JuniorJunior 4,853 Posts
    I use Lunarpages for earfuzz.com and have never had any problems with exceeding bandwidth or disk space(they claim it's unlimited and I haven't had a reason to doubt them yet).

    Although we obviously pull in a significantly lower amount of traffic than soul-sides it seems to hold up fine with the amount of files we load on there, is easy to use and costs 95 dollars a year which seems pretty reasonable (though obviously not as reasonable as it was six months ago).

    Let me know if you want any other details.
  • DuderonomyDuderonomy Haut de la Garenne 7,793 Posts
    http://www.ecohost.coop/hosting-plans


    Home 100 Home 500 Home 1000 Pro 1000 Pro 2000 Pro 3000

    ORDER ORDER ORDER ORDER ORDER ORDER
    Annual fee
    (inc vat)
    ??30 ??60 ??90 ??141 ??188 ??235
    Web Space (MB)
    100 500 1000 1000 2000 3000
    Data Transfer (MB/month)
    500 750 1000 2000 4000 6000
    Mail Boxes 5 10 15 100 500 1000
    MySQL Databases 1 2 3 5 10 20
    Automated Backups weekly weekly weekly daily daily daily
    Tech Support email email email tel. tel. tel.
    Control Panel yes yes yes yes yes yes
    Web File Manager yes yes yes yes yes yes
    Secure Directories yes yes yes yes yes yes
    Email auto responders 5 10 15 100 500 1000
    Email forwarding yes yes yes yes yes yes
    Email aliases yes yes yes yes yes yes
    Spamfilter yes yes yes yes yes yes
    Web statistics yes yes yes yes yes yes
    Database Management yes yes yes yes yes yes
    SSI yes yes yes yes yes yes
    MySQL5 yes yes yes yes yes yes
    PHP5 yes yes yes yes yes yes
    CGI Bin yes yes yes yes yes yes
    Annual Fee ??30 ??60 ??90 ??141 ??188 ??235

    ORDER ORDER ORDER ORDER ORDER ORDER
  • funky16cornersfunky16corners 7,175 Posts
    I use Lunarpages for earfuzz.com and have never had any problems with exceeding bandwidth or disk space(they claim it's unlimited and I haven't had a reason to doubt them yet).

    Although we obviously pull in a significantly lower amount of traffic than soul-sides it seems to hold up fine with the amount of files we load on there, is easy to use and costs 95 dollars a year which seems pretty reasonable (though obviously not as reasonable as it was six months ago).

    Let me know if you want any other details.


    on Lunarpages
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