Recommended hosting companies?

[Mikey]

O.k. So I need a spot to host files, maybe FTP access but HTTP would be fine too. I don't plan on running a business or anything like that although I might set up some E-mail accounts. Very small-time, just personal stuff.

Does anyone have a list of companies or hosting sites that have a good reputation with SC? Obviously there are lots of them on some of the other forums here that DON'T have a good reputation and I can go over to ROKSO and find some other ones to stay away from. Point is, I'd rather not support the scumbags and I'd also rather not have to deal with getting myself off of blacklists if some other moron on my (shared) mail server gets me listed.

Here's my wishlist. Flames welcome.

1. Cheap!! Less that $30 a year

2. At least 200 MB of disk storage

3. Linux host

4. MySQL, PHP, CGI, Perl

5. Content Management stuff would be nice but not required.

6. SSH access

7. Lack of spamming morons and a hosting company that keeps it that way.

Am I asking for too much?

[WB8TYW]

1. Cheap!! Less that $30 a year

2. At least 200 MB of disk storage

I Have no idea of the rates for this, but I doubt that it is anywhere near that low. My guess is that unless you can find a hobby server to team up with, it will cost you at least $120 per year, and there may be bandwidth restrictions. But that is based on the rates posted by the advertisement for Webmasters.com that is on the spamcop.net web page.

I do not know anything about webmasters.com. I would assume that their rates are competative with the rest of the industry.

Of one of the hobby systems that I know of, the suggested donation to defer the operating costs is at $50.00 per member, but there is no charge to use it. Disk quotas are more limited than what you are looking for though unless you are working on a project that the user community for the server would find valuable. And only a single e-mail account is available per member.

There seem to be a lot of these hobby type systems on the internet if you look around.

One of the sysops that for the hobby service runs a hosting service, but I doubt that the rates are anywhere as low as what you are looking for, but I really do not know. If he treats is paying clients as well as he treats the users of the hobby system, he would give them great service.

-John

Personal Opinion Only

[Mikey]

Actually there are some surprisingly cheap options out there. If you go here: http://www.findmyhosting.com you can fine stuff as cheap as about $10/year. Of course I have NO idea what the reliability or performance of such a system would be. Then again its not a big deal for me because its not like my business would be relying on it. I'm sure most of these people seriously over-subscribe and have 20,000 people hosted on the same box.

I've found a couple on there that look promising, just thought I'd put the feelers out to see if anyone knew of a vociferous (like me!) anti-spam operation who wouldn't be likely to end up listed here at SC. I'd like to support the community.

Thanks OT!

73

[btech]

Here's who I use: http://www.espinda.com/plans.html

Windows Server 2003

Web Space

Unlimited

Monthly Transfer

Unlimited

Email Accounts

Unlimited

Email Forwarders

Uptime Guarantee new

100%

Subdomains

Unlimited

Unlimited

ASP

Yes

PHP new

Yes

CGI / Perl

Yes

$ 55.00

The Linux system is only $25 a year, but it's storage space, sub-domains, mail accounts and pointers are limited.

[Guest art101]

I’ve been through several hosting companies since first going online in 1994. Big ones, mom & pop shops - always looking for a good combination of price and features, but mainly security and an exemplary anti-spam record.

That said, I highly recommend http://www.webmasters.com

$9.95 per month, no setup fee. You pay for one year up front... if you move or or cancel, they refund the unused portion (quickly and ethically).

1 GB of disk space with 30 GB of burstable bandwidth.

300 POP3 mailboxes, unlimited aliases, autoresponders.

Proprietary webmail with features like OE.

Advanced spam filters with customizable filtering rules.

PHP , ASP, ColdFusion, Perl, Python, C++, SSI, and Tcl/Tk supported.

Free shopping cart with real time credit card processing.

Expansive web-based control panel with full suite of web admin tools.

24/7 phone or email support with virtually no downtime.

More features - see their site.

I actually found them while on SpamCop a few years ago. At the time, SpamCop included little ad banners for sponsors (this was pre-Ironport). Webmasters had an ad, so I checked them out, then Googled anything I could find with regard to spam complaints about them (found nothing). I then checked Spamhaus.org for listings (again, nothing) - so I called and asked how they could offer all that stuff so cheap.

“We only offer one hosting plan, so we don’t have to spread our resources thin by supporting a bunch of complex plans and services,” the sales rep said.

“We’re like the Southwest Airlines of hosting companies,“ she continued. “Whether you’re a big company or one individual, all our tech and R&D people basically only need to know how to fix one kind of plane.”

Sounded good to me, so I signed up. Been with them two years; very pleased. I host about 20 client sites with them, too. The reason I know they refund if you cancel is that some of my clients are political consultants. Once an election is over, the client typically pulls down the campaign site.

They’ve been in business since 1994. Hope this endorsement is helpful.

[waugh]

Near the bottom of http://www.women4peace.org/link.htm, under the heading "Tech", you can find my comments on a web hosting service as well as a separate domain registation service. I don't know anything about the spam record of this service, but performance has sufficed for my purposes, availability has been perfect every time I've checked, and the only time I contacted support, they responded quickly and straightforwardly.