Recommended host

Hi,

I've just received my first payment and think it's time I invested in a proper host. I recon I'll need about 10GB a month to start with. Could anyone recommend anything cheap and reliable? The best I've found so far is http://www.100webspace.com/plan1.html. $35.40 for a year. Is that a good price?

Thanks,

fcmisc.

 

There are many who offer good services it depends on what are your needs!
here is a example of the webhosting dir:
http://www.webhostdir.com/spotlight/unix.asp

 

Make sure they offer 'server logs' so you can see your traffic details.

An important detail my isp of 8+ years does not offer.
I'd find a new one but I don't want to transfer over 150 megs of data with dial-up speed, lol

 

I have tried lunarpages and its good one i think.

 

www.webhostingtalk.com is an excellent resource for comparing hosts and finding out if there are reported problems with any names.

 

As a hosting company myself I have a perspective that might be valuable. In the spirit of fairness, I'm actually going to recommend somebody else.

There are many important factors many people overlook as they pick a hosting company. Most people compare price, bandwidth, and disk space allocation. Personally I feel there are more important factors.

Backups - Does the hosting company backup your data daily? Or is that your responsibility? Do you have any databases, if so how often are those backed up or will you have to do SQL dumps?

Connectivity - Some hosting companies are located much closer to the "big pipes" on the internet than others. Some hosting companies just have data centers that are in a better location than others. If your hosting company operates out of a Level(3) Communications data facility you will probably have better connectivity and better response times than if your hosting company has their servers running in someone's basement.

Perhaps an even better way is to look at what other people have to say about reliability. Here are some reliability statistics for May and April. Of the companies listed I'm fond of Hostway, Rackspace, and 1and1.

Support - I know come companies that only offer email support, but still do a bang-up job of it. The company in mind typically has a 15 minute response time on email support. Other companies offer toll-free 24x7 phone support. Send an email or call each of the companies you are considering and see what their response time is.

Security - This one is really hard to judge from the outside. Most of the larger companies do this well. Some of the smaller companies are either really good or really bad.

 

There is a site called www.whreviews.com. The person who runs it is a regular member at www.webhostingtalk.com and he is pretty well continuously watching the feedback people are giving, and then making recommendations. My new favorite right now is www.site5.com, but certainly their are many great hosts out there.