Simplify your laptop buying
Web design & hosting: Too many web hosting choices... help!
Too many web hosting choices... help!
by centaurcoach - 1/9/09 8:37 PMI'm planning a coaching website, actually two closely related sites. I want to collect email addresses, have an autoresponder capable of sending serial emails, mp3 and video downloads, subscription to podcasts, a blog, maybe a forum. And... although I am a novice, I do plan to design these sites myself. Support, tutorials, and creative software would be very helpful.
Frankly, I don't know how to find the best web hosting for my needs because there are so many choices. It would be nice to be able to host these two sites on the same host, save money. But I would need separate autoresponders for each and I need to keep the email list separate, at least in the beginning. My intention is to test various approaches to see which of them work.
Who do I trust?
Most shared hosting plans fit your needs!
by sunnyday133 - 1/13/09 1:12 AM In reply to: Too many web hosting choices... help! by centaurcoachBasically most shared hosting plans nowadays fit your requirements. With Fantastico - most web applications needed can be installed in just a few clicks. Thus I don't think you need to spent much time in researching the hosting features by various companies.
Instead, check on your short listed company's server reliability as well as reputation.
Most hosting reviews are heavily biased by affiliate commissions. Some might be telling the truth but I don't find many of them around the front pages in related Google searches.
Also, asking the same question at Web Hosting Talk (forum) might help better than cnet.
Personally Hostgator works best for me but their pricing is a little expensive - they are charging about $9+/mo for standard hosting plans but they're pretty reliable in my record.
Yes Hostgator is recommended!
by cnet-jerry - 1/13/09 5:42 PM In reply to: Most shared hosting plans fit your needs! by sunnyday133Indeed.
I've been with Hostgator for 3 years. Thru out these years, I have never experience any major down time for my website and I hardly have to communicate with their supports (coz there's no problem at all). Also, another point worth noting is that Hostgator had just invested over 1 million for their cPanel software and customer support system upgrades.
I had written a detail review on Hostgator here: http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.com/web-hosting-review-hostgator/ but I don't think you need to read it - just go ahead and order them. 
cPanel & Fantastico
by darenshawn - 1/13/09 5:39 PM In reply to: Too many web hosting choices... help! by centaurcoachAgree with Sunnyday.
I guess what you need to look for is a cPanel web hosting with Fantastico embedded. That will definitely save you more time and energy in designing and structuring your website.
Daren
Hostgator FAQ
Break it down for me please
by centaurcoach - 1/13/09 8:13 PM In reply to: cPanel & Fantastico by darenshawnThanks all for the info. I think it is helping.
Please define cPanel. And what exactly does Fantastico do?
I assume not all web hosting services have these two things.
One other thing, I've been advised by web savvy folk not to believe "unlimited" storage and bandwidth. They say that would be impossible. It sounds impossible. So how is it possible for Hostgator to offer that.
Inodes
by darenshawn - 1/13/09 11:19 PM In reply to: Break it down for me please by centaurcoachExactly! Web host providers have no way to give unlimited features. They are just taking advantages on the fact that most subscribers will not consume all the resources allocated, so they promise more.
For Hostgator, they measure storage usage based on Inodes, 1 file = 1 inodes, Hostgator shared hosting has 250,000 limit inodes. You can read more about Hostgator Inodes at my post. While some other web host prefer to extend your storage from time to time. For example first they give you 10GB of space, when the time you approach the limit, you request an extend and they extend. The process repeat and repeat. But however, i think for your case the storage will not be a problem.
For fantastico, I came across this Fantastico post which does a good explanation. Perhaps you can take a look.
For cPanel, it's a window-like web hosting control panel for you to do all the hosting work including managing files, managing domains, managing email accounts and etc. It's a very useful and user-friendly features. There are many hosting demo around and you can try accessing it. With that you can have a better feel on cPanel.
Yes.Not all web hosting have these 2 things in their packages. Some web host prefer cPanel, while some may prefer vDeck. (another kind of control panel) It depends. But for your information cPanel is so far the most popular among web host. I have used only cPanel before but not others, so it's not right for me to say cPanel is the best, but I do prefer to have a cPanel hosting though.
For your case, Fantastico does play an important role as there are scripts library that fit your need like: forum, blog forum and etc. (Scripts are to be installed in your web hosting when you need them, for example Wordpress the blog software, if you choose to self host Wordpress, you will need to install the software/script in your webhosting)
Below is a list of reference that may help you to learn more about Hostgator. (Forgive me for keep talking about Hostgator as I'm their fan:) ) The same concept does apply to most other shared hosting plan.
Hostgator Review
Hostgator Fantastico Scripts List
Hostgator Money Back Policy
Hostgator Storage Policy
Hostgator Hosting Features - If you look at the features under Email, you will see auto responder is included.
Hope these help.
My 2-cents
by Sovereign
- 1/14/09 2:01 PM
In reply to: Inodes by darenshawn
I can understand how it may be hard to find out which web hosting provider is the best; in fact, there are many web hosting review sites like mine that promote a top 10 web hosting list. In reality these lists change from person to person and site to site... Most reliable web hosting review sites provide many other resources (other than the top 10 lists) that should help you out in yours search.. For example, my site has a whole section of my site dedicated to web hosting articles and guides. The more research you do, the better you will understand which host is the best.
Our site is hosted by HostMonster and have never had any problems; therefore we advertise them as the best web host... In all fairness to other hosts I will say HostMonster is not the only good web hosting, in fact I personally know BlueHost, HostGator, and IxWebHosting also provide good hosting..
Anyways, good luck.. Hope all of this information helps.
------
This is a repost from user "jburdon" -- this is the second time (http://forums.cnet.com/5208-6616_102-0.html?forumID=37&threadID=320789&messageID=2929885&tag=forums06;forum-threads) I've noted not to promote your own web site. Thank you,
~Sovereign
Affiliate marketing driven bias in web hosting reviews
by centaurcoach - 1/14/09 6:16 PM In reply to: My 2-cents by Sovereign
So far I've learned that I need to dig a little for the actual facts. I've learned that affiliate marketing does what it is intended to do... it generates biased reviews.
Who is doing objective testing and reporting without kickbacks? Seems like a real need ... at least from my newbie point of view.
Thank you all for your help.
Cheap and cheerful
by StGeorge - 1/15/09 9:44 AM In reply to: Too many web hosting choices... help! by centaurcoachYou will get everything you want from these two
I use these.
They are the best for price and services.
http://www.ixwebhosting.com/index.php/v2/pages.dspmain for paid.
http://www.000webhost.com/ is pretty good for free.
Cheap ?
by preal78 - 3/1/09 1:45 AM In reply to: Cheap and cheerful by StGeorgeDont risk you business by looking for cheapest web hosting, web hosting is more crucial part of your online presence, try only reputed established companies having 24 x 7 support
Agree
by darenshawn - 3/2/09 5:49 PM In reply to: Cheap ? by preal78Definitely agree on avoiding any hosting service that is too low-priced. What you pay is what you get. You will not get a quality hosting with little money.
However, perhaps the "cheap" word is too sensitive. Budget hosting should be the right word. Budget hosting is not cheap but reasonably priced.
In term of budget hosting, WebHostingPad is a good host. However, Hostgator remains as my all time best hosting.
I know a good place
by langohioem - 3/3/09 1:49 PM In reply to: Too many web hosting choices... help! by centaurcoachI hosted with tellup web services for years, I think he has become tellox now. I had nice store front up, but last year with the downturn in the economy I gave it up. In fact, things got so bad I wasn't able to pay for the last 6 months and this guy forgve me. They are small, host about 200 customers I think, but they have some really powerful equipment, the servers are screaming fast and you can call this guy at home at night and he will bend over backwards to help you out. Truth be knownst, he really ended up doing everything for me and didn't charge me a dime for the setup. I have my email with him now, he just gave it to me, I guess having been a good customer for years, they are honest people, but hard to get on with.
| Forum legend: | |
 |
Locked thread |
 |
Moderator |
 |
CNET staff |
 |
Samsung staff |
 |
Norton Authorized Support team |
 |
AVG staff |
 |
Windows Outreach team |
 |
Dell staff |
 |
Intel staff |
