Inexpensive Web Hosting

[Solipsys]

Hi all,

I'm moving soon from San Francisco to Rhode Island and I need to find a new place to host my web site and e-mail. Until now I have hosted it on my own server at home on DSL.

Does anyone know of some good hosting companies that cost under $20 a month and are professional? I'd definitely go for .Mac if I could have my domain name resolve to a .Mac account... is this possible?

Any suggestions would be much appreciated!

[szark]

I recommend Dreamhost (http://www.dreamhost.com/rewards.cgi?james21) -- they have a very good low end package. Not the cheapest out there, but well within your price range and very full-featured.

I've hosted with them for almost a year now, and have never had an issue.

As far as resolving to a .Mac account, you would have to host your domain with another provider and have it redirect to your .Mac website. (Dreamhost will do this for free.) As far as I know, .Mac doesn't allow much dynamic content so if you have cgi scripts or other server-side code in your webpages I think you may have to go elsewhere.

[Moxiemike]

I've used the following with no problems at all:

hostway.com (the best by far. a long far)
dot5hosting.com (pretty good pakcage, can host multiple sites)
ipowerweb.com (cheap, pretty useful. good disk space)

[filmcutter]

I've had fine results from omnis.com (http://www.omnis.com)

They have a number of price plans and I've never had any problems in the past three years.

[cleo]

I've been with oneononeinternet.com for a few months, but am in the process of switching to dot5hosting.com - eyelikeart referred me to them, and they have really good prices ($7/month for 150MB, 8GB transfer, 2 sites).

Good luck!

[krossfyter]

which one has more opition and space for a good price???

[bbarnhart]

I use Pronic Solutions (http://www.pronicsolutions.com) and I am really happy with them. For $10.95 a month you have 100 Meg disk, 7 Gig of transfer and lots of other stuff. It may not be the cheapest, but from what I can tell they are very solid and I've never had a problem.

They also have a great help section and questions asked by email or on the help forums are completely answered in minutes.

[whfsdude]

I also use dreamhost.com :)

[kungfu]

i like this one a lot:

http://www.icdsoft.com

kungfu

[eyelikeart]

he he he....make sure to tell them I referred u over...not sure if there's any fringe benefits for me as a current client or not... ;)

[krossfyter]

Originally posted by eyelikeart
he he he....make sure to tell them I referred u over...not sure if there's any fringe benefits for me as a current client or not... ;)

who are you reffering to eyeman?

[Solipsys]

A lot of great suggestions... I think it's come down to Dot5Hosting and ICDSoft. ICD has the best price by far, but Dot5 seems to be more established. Kungfu, how long have you been using ICD? Are they reliable, trustworthy, etc...?

Thanks again!

[kungfu]

Originally posted by Solipsys
A lot of great suggestions... I think it's come down to Dot5Hosting and ICDSoft. ICD has the best price by far, but Dot5 seems to be more established. Kungfu, how long have you been using ICD? Are they reliable, trustworthy, etc...?

Thanks again!

i actually don't use icdsoft, i use ipowerweb (which is a little sketchy), but a friend told me icd was really good (looks a lot better than ipowerweb)... if you go on their website, it has an example of the control panel and all that...

kungfu

[buffsldr]

hostway. 20 mbs for 9 bucks a month. i host 3 web sites through them. originally i started with vservers, then they were gobbled up by hostpro, then hostpro was gobbled up by interland. that is when i left and went to hostway.com

[eyelikeart]

Originally posted by krossfyter


who are you reffering to eyeman?

he he...all u cats who are looking at them for hosting! :D

[Rower_CPU]

Follow-up to all of this:
Who do you use for DNS registration?

I'm thinking it's time for me to bite the bullet and grab a domain name...so what are your experiences out there?

[szark]

Originally posted by eyelikeart
...make sure to tell them I referred u over...

If anyone considers Dreamhost, make sure to use my link (http://www.dreamhost.com/rewards.cgi?james21) -- I could use the benefits... :D

I also went through them for DNS registration.

[buffsldr]

Originally posted by Rower_CPU
Follow-up to all of this:
Who do you use for DNS registration?

I'm thinking it's time for me to bite the bullet and grab a domain name...so what are your experiences out there?

rower... not trying to be a know it all, cuz i dont know it all.... but, you ask for "DNS registration", but what you mean is Domain Name Registration. So you are now thinking, whats the difference. The answer is that domain name registration gives you intellectual property rights, and sometimes it includes telling the world what domain name SERVER can be used to resolve your domain to an actual hard drive. Domain Name Server (DNS) registration is a misnomer.

Not to whine on any longer than I already have, so here is my tip.. Go to dotster.com. not the cheapest, but I love them. They are so friendly and helpful. Seriously, they remind me a lot of apple.

[Rower_CPU]

Originally posted by buffsldr
rower... not trying to be a know it all, cuz i dont know it all.... but, you ask for "DNS registration", but what you mean is Domain Name Registration. So you are now thinking, whats the difference. The answer is that domain name registration gives you intellectual property rights, and sometimes it includes telling the world what domain name SERVER can be used to resolve your domain to an actual hard drive. Domain Name Server (DNS) registration is a misnomer.

Not to whine on any longer than I already have, so here is my tip.. Go to dotster.com. not the cheapest, but I love them. They are so friendly and helpful. Seriously, they remind me a lot of apple.

Thanks for the info and clarification.

I'm just used to calling it that, since that's the term used by the networking group on campus for us to reserve domain names for our servers. I now see the difference.

[Solipsys]

For Domain Name Registration they are pretty good... of course they're the only one I have used so I have nothing to compare it to.

$35 a year, which is the standard... anything cheaper I'd avoid, or at least thoroughly read their license agreement. Register.com also has a very nice control panel for managing your domain names.

BTW, I went with ICDSoft for my new web hosting. For $5 a month you get 333 MB of storage, 5 GB of traffic a month, 1000 mail boxes, 6 ftp accounts, mailing lists, and all the fancy CGI/PHP/MySQL stuff (if that's your cup o' tea)... plus the control panel makes everyhting nice and easy.

So thanks everyone. It would've taken me days to find a good host without the help of this community.

[Rower_CPU]

I guess that's my next question, then.

What do you look for/avoid in a domain name registration service?

ICDSoft is $5...Register.com is $35. What does that extra $30 get you?

I've heard of the horror stories of squatters buying domains to try to sell them back at exorbitant rates, and people losing domains because of poor communication with their company and missing deadlines, etc....since I'm new to this aspect of the web, I'd like to avoid these situations. Thanks.

[Solipsys]

Originally posted by Rower_CPU
I guess that's my next question, then.

What do you look for/avoid in a domain name registration service?

ICDSoft is $5...Register.com is $35. What does that extra $30 get you?

I've heard of the horror stories of squatters buying domains to try to sell them back at exorbitant rates, and people losing domains because of poor communication with their company and missing deadlines, etc....since I'm new to this aspect of the web, I'd like to avoid these situations. Thanks.

Registering a Domain Name is different from having a company host your site. Places like Register.com simply register your DN... they don't offer any hosting services. $35 a year is the flat rate for registration with Internic. Any company offering registration for less than $35 might actually have legal claim to your DN so it's important to read their license agreement carefully. ICDSoft hosts your registered DN on their servers for $5 a month. Your DN will resolve to an IP address that they provide you to host your site on their servers.

There are some companies that provide both registration and hosting, and in those instances you might get some sort of package deal that is cheaper than the combined cost, but again, make sure to read the license agreement. If you come up with some completely original/marketable domain name you want to make sure that you completely own the rights to that name.

Edit: I've had a couple domain names that I missed the payment on, and Register.com did indeed automatically register/buy them under their company after I missed the deadline. I don't know if this is standard practice, but it was my fault and I never tried to "buy" them back since I was no longer interested in the names.

[irmongoose]

DO NOT USE NETWORK SOLUTIONS! EVER!!!!!!!!

Why? The worst service and support ever seen on Earth. Even worse than my Internet provider! (shivers)


DO NOT LET THE $20/year PRICE LURE YOU TO THIS JUNK!!!!!!




irmongoose

[buffsldr]

Originally posted by irmongoose
DO NOT USE NETWORK SOLUTIONS! EVER!!!!!!!!

Why? The worst service and support ever seen on Earth. Even worse than my Internet provider! (shivers)


DO NOT LET THE $20/year PRICE LURE YOU TO THIS JUNK!!!!!!




irmongoose

Oh my. Thank you irmongoose. Thank you for being the voice of reason. Rower, I dont want to offend other posters, but man.... if you pay $35 bucks a year because it is the going rate, I have a bridge to sell you. Dont do it. Network solutions is a dog, and register.com, well if they are charging 35 a year, so are they. Network solutions was a monopoly at one time. INternic does not charge 35 a year. Other posters have a point.... look for a domain name registration company that is ICANN accreddited. If you go to ICANN's site you can find a list. But, I strongly recommend using dotster.com I have used networksolutions.com and would strongly advise against that. YOur extra money goes to their margins, not towards any better service.... in fact it is the other way around. Dotster is trying to win your business. I have probably registered five names with dotster over the last 1-1/2 years. They rock. But, having said that, if you find an ICANN accredited hosting company for 6-20 bucks a year, do it. Of course, it doesnt hurt to have a recommendation from someone here.

Buff

[Rower_CPU]

Thanks a lot for the info, everyone. I've been so lucky to have been working on servers on campus and not dealing with all this...

Here's the page listing ICANN accredited registrars:
http://www.icann.org/registrars/accredited-list.html

Note, dotster and register.com are there, ICDSoft is not...so it looks like I'll register my domain name elsewhere, and then go with ICD for the web hosting.

...unless someone else has something to add.;)

[szark]

Dreamhost is also on the list...

New Dream Network, LLC dba Domainitron.com

[krossfyter]

Solipsys...


why is icdsoft better then dot5hosting? or is it?
i know dot5 has great support they have aim.
it seems icdsoft offers more space but no domain name registration option.
with dot5 i can register my name and have both payments go to them rather then sending 2 different payments to 2 different compaines (not a big issue).
but like you said i wonder if i do that with dot5 will they own the license to my name.

im trying to decide between these two. both seem good to me... better then the rest in my opinion. but im open to anything else that can match them.

[Solipsys]

Originally posted by krossfyter
Solipsys...

why is icdsoft better then dot5hosting? or is it?
i know dot5 has great support they have aim.
it seems icdsoft offers more space but no domain name registration option.
with dot5 i can register my name and have both payments go to them rather then sending 2 different payments to 2 different compaines (not a big issue).


I'm certainly no expert in this matter. I just went with ICDSoft because they were the least expensive and offered what i needed. I had already registered the domain name years ago so that wasn't an issue for me. Dot5 offers $15 dollars a year for DN registration plus $6.99 a month for basic hosting which seems pretty good to me... Maybe someone else can chime in with the best combo option out there?

PS- krossfyter, did you get the e-mail I sent you last night ?

[krossfyter]

okay thanks Solipsys that makes sense.

i did not get your email by the way. something is up with that email addy.. so im sorry.

my otherone is rebukethestructure@hotmail.com


for whatever.

[Choppaface]

myacen.com looks pretty good

i haven't used them, but at least they were pretty friendly when i asked them about where their offices were and whatnot