[thelist] Web hosting advice

Sylvia Braunstein sbraun at rugged.com
Thu Nov 6 07:55:01 CST 2003


Thanks for the feedback.
I used Arial 10 (2) to compose my message (you can see it in the source html
of the mail). Why? Did it come out funny?

Sylvia

-----Original Message-----
From: thelist-bounces at lists.evolt.org
[mailto:thelist-bounces at lists.evolt.org]On Behalf Of Burhan Khalid
Sent: Thursday, November 06, 2003 3:28 PM
To: thelist at lists.evolt.org
Subject: Re: [thelist] Web hosting advice


Sylvia Braunstein wrote:
> I am looking for a web host and domain name, starting from scratch.
> Can anyone give me advice as to the dos and don't or refer me to some
> interesting/relevant articles.
>
> Who should I choose and why?

My general advice is that don't get hosting from a domain provider.  I
have heard nothing but bad news from people that do so.  There are
*alot* of hosting companies out there, so you should solidify your
requirements before you go shopping.

As for domains, my only experience is with godaddy.com, and I have yet
to find something bad about their setup -- quite simply, it works :)
Prices are reasonable ($9/year for my .com), and their interface is well
thought out. I never have to hunt for an option.

Narrow your choices down to the top 5 and then go search for them at
places like www.webhostingtalk.com ( a good place to search for opinions
on hosts ). You can try posting a request at their requests forum, but
90% of the responses are usually from people just starting out and just
need to pay their server bills.

Along the same lines, if an offer seems to good to be true, it usually
is. You can find ultra-cheap hosting, but you'll pay in the end for lack
of support, server downtime, less-than-stellar bandwidth.

Specific recommendations? I can't say anything bad about my current host
(www.spenix.com) they have had next to no downtime ( a freak fire
brought down their dc a while back, but they managed to restore
everything before I noticed ).  Since I signed up with them, they have
changed their plans a bit, but still have kept me at my original plan.
They are constantly adding/updating their servers (recently I got Urchin
stats for free), and the person that runs the business is quite
knowledgable. I have honestly never needed their support service, but
when I have had that odd email -- it was responded to very promptly.

Doing your homework and nailing down your requirements is the first step
before you even start browsing, because you will get overwhelmed by the
number of responses. I was fortunate enough to find a good host from the
start, and have stuck with them.

Good luck :)

Btw, what font did you use to compose your message?
--
Burhan Khalid
thelist[at]meidomus[dot]com
http://www.meidomus.com

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