Members audioicon Posted February 6, 2007 Members Share Posted February 6, 2007 I'm currently hosting through Host Excellence and I want a divorce! My account will expire soon and I'm looking for a new host. Any recommendation will be appreciated! Looking for great tech/costumer support and great price! Thanks, Audioicon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members halljams Posted February 6, 2007 Members Share Posted February 6, 2007 Gisol has been good to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members audioicon Posted February 6, 2007 Author Members Share Posted February 6, 2007 Gisol has been good to me. Thanks very much man but this is what I found when I google this company! www.webhostingreviews.com/gisol.shtml Any other recommendations? Audioicon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members audioicon Posted February 6, 2007 Author Members Share Posted February 6, 2007 I was also going to asked you, did you google this company? Here's another link, www.gisol.ca Audioicon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members John Sayers Posted February 6, 2007 Members Share Posted February 6, 2007 my site is hosted by soundresound.com I can't remember the last time my site was down - maybe over a year ago when hit by a hacker, the backup had us back online within a day.good price, personal service, reliable. ask for Boden cheersjohn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members audioicon Posted February 6, 2007 Author Members Share Posted February 6, 2007 Hey John, I'm checking out your recommendation right now!Will let you know. Audioicon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members where02190 Posted February 7, 2007 Members Share Posted February 7, 2007 Unfortunately good cheap hosting never lasts. It's good generally because it's new with a small client base, word gets out, client base increases, server traffic increases, and it all goes to {censored}. We have resolved to just migrate about once a year, since paying for consistantly good service (a dedicated server) is not fesable. It's not difficult and takes only about an hour, so IMHO it's worth it. New hosting companies are cropping up all the time, so it's easy to find one that's not taxed out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members John Sayers Posted February 7, 2007 Members Share Posted February 7, 2007 I've been with the one host since 2001 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members blue2blue Posted February 7, 2007 Members Share Posted February 7, 2007 I've only had my main business site with www.crystaltech.com (Windows shared hosting only, don't know about their dedicated servers) for a year or so but I've been webmaster (and developer) of a data-driven e-commerce site there for about 3 years and -- while they're not super cheap but they're very reliable and VERY responsible. If your site on them goes down they don't sit around hoping you won't find out it was dark -- they email you with pertinent info. Unlike more and more hosts, they're also Dreamweaver FTP compatible, which is a convenience if you're a DW user. They have have a bunch of plans, including a really reasonable stripped-down job (not a huge number of email addies and no server side programming or database) for $3 a month, an intermediate "pro" hosted package for around $8/mo and a nice $17 plan that lets you host up to 25 domains through domain aliasing. That's the one I'm using, since it's letting me consolidate a bunch of sites on one server and save some dough, too. I even put up a pro bono domain for a talented young artist at my coffee house ( www.kristinkaplowitz.com ). The aliased domains have their own email (sorta, not really, they all "alias" to the same mail server but individual domains APPEAR to have their own address -- but you share the same pool of potential email addresses, if you catch my drift. They're also really responsive. I was having a heck of a time getting a Flash video to play and started thinking they might not be supporting the latest MIME types. I emailed at, like 11:50 pm and got an email around 1:30 am telling me to send me the URLs. They checked and found the MIME types were, indeed, not set properly for what I was doing -- and they immediately changed them. NOW... all that said, farther down the price spectrum is the mega-provider www.GoDaddy.com (Windows OR Linux). They are something like the second or first biggest shared hosting provider in N. America or somesuch. I was dubious because they have a $4/mo plan with all kinds of features -- a few limitations, too, read carefully. But you get back end programming, databases (up to 10 MySQL databases!), even a limited form of domain aliasing (doesn't extend to email). I DID read some horror stories -- but they were from people who'd got caught (or at least accused) spamming (not the way THEY told it, mind you, but seems to me when you send out mass, unsolicited emails to people you've never contacted before... well, you know). Anyhow there are some NASTY anti-spamming provisions there. But in addition to the cheap hosting they have really cheap domain registration -- as long as you host with them. (Watch out though if you think you might get spammy -- since they'll lock up your domain until you pay the contractual spamming "fines" they build into the service agreement.) With a little trepidation I put a client's site on them and everything went fine. Once I figured out their control panel I realized it gives you a LOT of control -- more than my "pro" host in some areas. And -- when I HOSED myself by putting the wrong email address in a press release I'd written for the client and put out for distribution -- using the client's .org address instead of the .com that was the one hooked up to the email, I got on the phone to them to try to figure out how I could pull my backside outta the fire. The guy thought for a sec and said, well, there's nothing I can do for free -- but if you're willing to pay (it was something like) $3.50 (for the whole year) I can sell you five email aliases that will work and they'll just forward to whoever you want, sound good? It took him 6 or 7 minutes (NOT much of a profit on THAT transaction for them, I don't think) and that was that. I couldn't have been more relieved. So... caveat emptor but I'll definitely be going back to them again, I think. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members veracohr Posted February 7, 2007 Members Share Posted February 7, 2007 I haven't been with my new host very long, but it was an absolute breeze setting up my account. I had my website switched to the new host and the domain pointed to it about an hour after placing the order (not including file upload time). After placing the order, they had to call me to verify. They called in less than 5 minutes! It took about a week to get going with my last host. http://www.inmotionhosting.com/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members claveslave Posted February 7, 2007 Members Share Posted February 7, 2007 I'm currently hosting through Host Excellence and I want a divorce! I have space with Host Excellence as well. I don't have a site as such but do avail myself of the space for storage and link files. It has been smooth except for a hiccup a week or so ago when they did some upgrading. I'm just interested as to what problems you've had and what to be aware of? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members halljams Posted February 7, 2007 Members Share Posted February 7, 2007 I was also going to asked you, did you google this company? Here's another link, www.gisol.ca Audioicon {censored}ty. Still, i have never had any problems. Mind you, i am definatley a light user. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members audioicon Posted February 7, 2007 Author Members Share Posted February 7, 2007 I have space with Host Excellence as well. I don't have a site as such but do avail myself of the space for storage and link files. It has been smooth except for a hiccup a week or so ago when they did some upgrading. I'm just interested as to what problems you've had and what to be aware of? Well I've been with Host Excellence for two years, my account is about to expire so I figure I look for something better. I do my own web design with Dreamweaver but now my table is filled with books on learning the real way, writing HTML/XHTML/CSS you name it. Using Dreamweaver is like wearing a freaking depends! Anyway because I'm a self thought amateur web designer, I need great tech/costumer support! With Host Excellence you wait for hours maybe days just to get someone to talk to you. To be honest, this is my biggest problem. You try to upload a page, something doesn't work, you need this fixed urgently, you call Host Excellence and a robotic voice tells you, "your call is now first in line and will be answered by the next representative," basically you hear this for the next five hours! And if you are 10th in line, sorry! But I have to say that when they come online, they are great! One or two will play dumb! But the rest of the guys are very friendly. My account expires in March, if I can't find a better deal, then I'll stay. I paid $118.00 for two years! There's also IX web hosting, great deal, free domain name, about $95.00 for two years but owned by the same company that owns Host Excellence. And just for the record I never spam but get junk mail like 10 a day! Audioicon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members claveslave Posted February 7, 2007 Members Share Posted February 7, 2007 Well... that's interesting. Thanks for your observations. Sounds like you're my clone. I've been there 2 years and I'm up for renewal in March as well. I have no way of being prepared to jump ship this year, particularly with regard to Domain names and the garbage I have stored there but I'll keep a watchful eye over proceedings. I'm not US based, so I don't converse via phone. I use the Live Chat facility which I've always found to be prompt and on the money. I think that there are probably cheaper alternatives out there but... too many devils. They have made a few improvements recently, most noticably the speed of access to the Control panels but I wish they'd update the domain info more than once every 24 hours. Thanks for the info. I'm on the Linux protocol BTW. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members nursers Posted February 7, 2007 Members Share Posted February 7, 2007 Pair Networks - www.pair.com have been great, been using them for 5+ years Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members blue2blue Posted February 7, 2007 Members Share Posted February 7, 2007 As someone who has to code in... I dunno... 5, 6 different languages and even more variants I just wanna say that, while I've had my quarrels with Dreamweaver and their former publishers, Macromedia (and I'm DEFINITELY more than wary of Adobe who I strongly suspect will ruin both DW and Flash) I have to say that DW (I use version 8 but will wait and see on subsequent post-Adobe versions) can be invaluable if you actually know what you're doing and can Un-F the code it generates when it bollixes up the style sheeting (as it so often does). But I am OVER coding basic html by hand. I can, the keystrokes for angle brackets are deep in muscle memory for me and I can format inline code without thinking by and large but I just don't see the slightest moral value in coding by hand if I don't have to. It's grunt work and robots do grunt work fine for the most part. Sometimes you just have to get in and help them out a little... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members audioicon Posted February 7, 2007 Author Members Share Posted February 7, 2007 But I am OVER coding basic html by hand. I can, the keystrokes for angle brackets are deep in muscle memory for me and I can format inline code without thinking by and large but I just don't see the slightest moral value in coding by hand if I don't have to. It's grunt work and robots do grunt work fine for the most part. Sometimes you just have to get in and help them out a little... I can understand your point about coding but I want to be able to tell someome what or means when they asked. I hate limitations, yes Dreamweaver writes the codes but it can screw up a lot under the hood and if you don't know what you are doing then it's bye bye! I'll still use Dreamweaver but I want to be able to get down and dirty when it's time to open the hood and mess with the actual codes. Audioicon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members blue2blue Posted February 7, 2007 Members Share Posted February 7, 2007 It was the diapers thing that got me going. Us seniors are, you know, sensitive about continence issues. (Although I never was before they started putting really good looking women my age on TV commercials that turn out to be for adult nappies... ARGH!) I'm 100% behind people knowing how to code by hand for HTML -- and if you're going to use DW 8's really MESSED UP CSS implementation, you are ABSOLUTELY going to need to know how to unscrew it when DW INVARIABLY manages to totally bollix up your CSS. So... yeah. We're about 95% on the same dime, here. And -- now that Adobe has bought Macromedia, I'm bracing myself for the imminent (and unfortunately quite likely) possibility that they will screw DW and maybe Flash, too, completely to the point where I'll have to find other primary tools. Ajax anyone? To this end, I've DL'd the free Visual Studio development apps from MS including their Visual Web Studio (or whatever TF it's called) which has a... interesting implementation of ASP.NET 2 interfacing. (It's actually pretty cool for FREE... ) I've used it for some stuff and it's probably one of the fastest ways of getting basic .NET 2 web apps up... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members audioicon Posted February 7, 2007 Author Members Share Posted February 7, 2007 It was the diapers thing that got me going. Us seniors are, you know, sensitive about continence issues. (Although I never was before they started putting really good looking women my age on TV commercials that turn out to be for adult nappies... ARGH!) I'm 100% behind people knowing how to code by hand for HTML -- and if you're going to use DW's really STUPID current CSS implementation, you are ABSOLUTELY going to need to know how to unscrew it when DW INVARIABLY manages to totally bollix up your CSS. So... yeah. We're about 95% on the same dime, here. Hey lets look at the other uses of depends, it works for astronauts looking for love desperately. UhM UhM! Audioicon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Rabid Posted February 7, 2007 Members Share Posted February 7, 2007 I used Brinkster for one account and Yahoo for another for 2 years. Brinkster was OK but missing some of the sight management goodies that others have. This past year I moved my stuff to Godaddy. Hate the name and the advertisements but they were cheap, had good features, and seem to be solid. I don't do heavy usage and have 4 domains with them. I have considered moving the company site to them as a money saving measure. My only problem has been their email service. When I first went on I got a lot of "time-outs" when Outlook would try to download from my email account. That has gone away in the last couple of months. At least one sister agency has gone to them for dedicated hosting without problem. I still may move the company site to them in the near future since the email problem seems to have gone away. Robert Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members blue2blue Posted February 7, 2007 Members Share Posted February 7, 2007 Yeah... I still have an asterisk in my head on GoDaddy but, as I said above, they were there when I needed them. I did notice that Google, of all people, had partnered with them for some sort of co-promo video hosting or something. One (tiny) thing I read about GoDaddy that greatly amused me -- they had the juevos (a few years ago) to sue Verisign (you know the jerks who used to call themselves Network Solutions who for many, many years had a monopoly on domain registration and now are struggling because, well, they totally SUCK) for sending out "phish" marketing emails to GoDaddy registration clients saying their domain reg was about to expire and you better hurry up over to Verisign and "renew" your registration!!! Verisign would seem to be the worst kind of [extremely uncharitable characterization self-censored] and I, for one, will NEVER EVER do business with them again [i learned to hate them when they were still riding high on the monopoly money] and strongly recommend against them when asked. _______ With regard to Brinkster, specifically, I made the mistake of saying something offhand nice about them right after I signed up in front of the proprietor of my favorite coffeehouse and she proceeded to switch to them -- MUCH to her subsequent and frequent chagrin. IN fact her web guy just this a.m. was saying how much he hated them. And they always look sideways at ME when they say these things. I didn't recommend them, honest. But I probably said something like "Gee, I kinda like my new hosting company." It's hard being a coffeehouse know-it-all, I gotta tell you. The responsibility is CRUSHING. I didn't have all THAT much problem with them and they've been fiarly reliable (some email ish, but, man, that's pandemic) but you really don't get much for your $10 a month and they have no alternative to yearly plans (and I SWEAR I did NOT see that the $8 a month I signed up for was the first year only!!!) Their stats are a FREAKIN' JOKE... utterly pathetic. (Happily, Google Analytics has a GREAT free service!) By contrast, Crystaltech, who I talked about above are the antithesis, seems to me. They don't look all that cheap on paper (but their rates don't suddenly shoot up once you're there, either. Crystaltech is flexible, has a lot of really solid features, and is responsive and responsible. That said, I don't like actually recommending anyone... it's like, just too risky... ___________ Oh... and back to GoDaddy and the silly host name thing... my registrar of choice (not that cheap at $14/yr by today's standards [esp. not when GoDaddy will reg their own hosted sites for $2!!!] but very helpful and responsive when needed) is www.123CheapDomains.com ... so... you know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gus Lozada Posted February 7, 2007 Share Posted February 7, 2007 Maybe i'm too damned old-school or plain ignorant... but my web-host provider is YAHOO. Been there for 4 years, I do not remember having my site shutdown ever. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members blue2blue Posted February 7, 2007 Members Share Posted February 7, 2007 Speaking of stats... I was just looking at my stats at CrystalTech and realized that the animated graphic I use in my GearSlutz signature... ...which comes off my CT server, had consumed 175,789 KB (about 167 MB) of bandwidth in the last week. Now that is valuable information. (For those of you who don't do the GS thang, my animated gif started from one of their stock avatar images that's widely used by a number of members, just a simple mixing board still. I got tired of seeing it so I did what I had to do... Since the relatively small 34 KB files is served off my server and cached once in most users' browsers, I didn't feel too guilty about b/w issues. But it's what's churning my servers, amusingly enough. Now that the html part of my blog/podcast is on the same server [the audio is at www.archive.org ] I should see a real change in traffic, if I can extrapolate from my Google Analytics numbers at the old site [which had been on Brinkster w/ its worthless non-stats].) I also know I had someone come into my site searching on "My love for you came without warning" which is an amusing contraction of a couple of parts of different songs... another nice thing to know. I should look up the page in the stats and see if they found it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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