What's been your best web-host deal?

[eclipse]

I'm attempting a little work as a moderator for Sydneypeakoil.com (but am basically retired) and so at the Phpbb.com website found an add that just sounds too good to be true.

http://www.bluehost.com/

This is not spam, I'm genuinely asking if there's a catch somewhere here. I'm paying about $180 a year for a host that gives me 300 mb storage not 600Gigs!!!!!! I mean, do I have to use their domain name of "bluehost.com" or something like LankshearDesign.bluehost.com? Because THAT's out of the question.

What's been your best deal?

Oh, and if anyone knows anything about Phpbb.com forum software, could you please please pretty please help me out with this?

 

[TodVader]

I use lonex.com and I get :

120 GB Disk Space
900 GB Transfer
3 Domains Hosted
100 POP3 E-mails
20 MySQL Databases

for 4.95$ a month.

Ive used that for years with no problems. you don't get as much as the one your talking about but they are cheaper and you still get plenty.

There are even cheaper packs with only 1 domain.

 

[eclipse]

1. I and my clients live in Australia... are these mega-deals mainly USA? I know the speed of light is so SLOW these days but would I have any trouble hosting my stuff in the USA if my main clients are Australian?

2. 3 domains... is that 3 completely different website names? Could I choose a completely different international .com and .org, as part of just $5 per month!?

 

[ethernet76]

I use bluehost.

Can't say I've ever had a problem.

You might want to find a server based in AU though.

 

[eclipse]

Ethernet, cool! Can you explain the domains to me? Could I use one domain for business and another for a hobby?

 

[mason.kramer]

bluehost

lol I replied to your thread title without reading the content, then noticed the content

No, bluehost is not a scam. It's true. It really is that cheap, and they really deliver what they offer. And their installed software package is good.

 

[eclipse]

What's the package about?

And what's with the domain names? Do they really give you a number of domain names that cheap? They reserve them for you and everything or do you have to register them yourself with some outside agency?

 

[mason.kramer]

Registered domains have to be attached to an ip address. Your ISP usually won't let you attach a domain to the IP address they give you, either because it is subject to change, or because they just don't want you serving a website from your house.

Bluehost doesn't "give" you domains; they permit you to attach as many domains to their IP as you want. You still have to pay to the NIC registration fee per domain. The signup fee at the site includes the registration on one domain, if you want more you still have to pay to register the names. If you register the names directly through Bluehost, you skip about 10 steps in the process, and they're a cheap registrar, but not the cheapest.

$180 for 300mb is archaic. Storage is CHEAP these days.

The only realistic limit to how much you can get out of a single bluehost package is the bandwidth limit and the speed of the server processing your server-side code (it's slow).

95% of websites that are not built on .NET have a usage profile that makes them suitable for bluehost. I always try to convince any of my clients that have a bad or outdated host to switch. Bluehost is not only much more bang for the buck, but they keep all of their 'ware up to date, including all the popular scripting languages, as well as the control panel. They also have a nice knowledgebase for configuring your ware to work specifically with bluehost settings.

The one caveat is that their offer is a shared host, not a virtual host. To go up to a virtual host you're looking at $50 / month from something like Media Temple. With a shared host, you can't edit Apache's http.conf configuration file, but you can put anything into a .htaccess file, because they have their httpd.conf set to AllowOverride All.

 

[TodVader]

1. I and my clients live in Australia... are these mega-deals mainly USA? I know the speed of light is so SLOW these days but would I have any trouble hosting my stuff in the USA if my main clients are Australian?

2. 3 domains... is that 3 completely different website names? Could I choose a completely different international .com and .org, as part of just $5 per month!?

The one I speficied, Lonex, has 3 choices:

Personal: 1 Domain: 3.95$
Business: 3 Domains: 4:95
Corporate: Unlimited Domains: 9.95$

You get a free domain when you set yourself up. Other domains are 7-8$ per year I think. Its been a while since I bought one but you can do all this in the control panel of lonex.

You have the choice of UK or USA as a server base. I chose US because I'm canadian and US was better for me but UK could be better for you.

I found them years ago and am very happy when them.

For your question, each domain can have a totally different website. You can have multiple domains for the same website too if you wish. You put what you want on each domain.

Btw, I use business. I have 2 websites and my wife has one.

 

[Jeremy1026]

I had bluehost in the past, and spent much of my time fighting with them getting my bill reduced due to server down time. I am now with godaddy because i didn't have time between switching to find a reliable cheap host. After go-daddy expires I will switch to a less commercialized, cheaper host.

 

[eclipse]

Thanks all for your great input.

Mason, just one question — what the heck does all this mean in English (or is that Newbie?) Sorry.

The one caveat is that their offer is a shared host, not a virtual host. To go up to a virtual host you're looking at $50 / month from something like Media Temple. With a shared host, you can't edit Apache's http.conf configuration file, but you can put anything into a .htaccess file, because they have their httpd.conf set to AllowOverride All.

 

[mason.kramer]

Basically, you can't configure the Apache server that serves your code in the ways you might conceivably want to (i.e., install mods). But, if you don't know what it means, it's a safe bet you'll never have to use it. So don't worry!