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Author Topic: Where to host a personal website  (Read 36860 times)

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« on: April 25, 2009, 17:29 »
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I found many threads here about web hosting, but more focused on photogalleries and e-commerce.  I need something else.

With Geocities going out of business in the next months, I need to find a new place for my websites (currently one is paid, the other two free).  They are very simple HTML, nothing too fancy, no dynamic pages.  What is a cheap but reliable place to host them?  For the moment I do not need my own domain, but this is something I look forward to in the future.


« Reply #1 on: April 25, 2009, 17:38 »
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Adelaide, I would look at weebly.com and 110mb.com. Weebly also offers templates for website design that can be quite useful.


« Reply #2 on: April 25, 2009, 18:14 »
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GA,

I'll take a look, but I am not necessarily looking for a free website, especially if they have too many ads and popups.

« Reply #3 on: April 25, 2009, 18:23 »
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Sure. They don't have any ads or popups. The only thing I noticed is, when designing a page with weebly, they put a small letter message at the very bottom of the page which says: "Create a free website with Weebly" but it hardly can be seen.

« Reply #4 on: April 25, 2009, 18:30 »
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My site is hosted at www.ixwebhosting.com and I'm quite happy with them. Basic plan is $3.95/month with PHP/MySQL and one domain name. I guess you man find many other hosting service however.

PaulieWalnuts

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« Reply #5 on: April 25, 2009, 19:22 »
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I've been using Godaddy for the past few years and they've been rock solid for hosting and email. I've used the Windows and Linux hosting with no problems. Customer service has been pretty good. I think I'm paying around $60 US per year.

EDIT: Forgot to add the link http://www.godaddy.com

WarrenPrice

« Reply #6 on: April 25, 2009, 20:27 »
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I also use godaddy.  domain name and hosting equal $60 a year.  My site is built around WordPress by a friend whose profession is website design.  I'm very pleased with the result.  If you like mine, you can contact him to work on yours.


« Reply #7 on: April 25, 2009, 21:23 »
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I use page-zone.com, but one hosting site is pretty much as good as another.

« Reply #8 on: April 25, 2009, 23:25 »
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I use page-zone.com, but one hosting site is pretty much as good as another.


Don't agree. I'm maintaining several sites (not photography related) and there are clear winners and losers. The best ones have solid and unlimited mysql servers that wont break down when a site gets popular. And needless to say... never accept the free offer of a domain, but register your domain with a separate registrar. I prefer namecheap.com since its cheaper and easier than godaddy at the moment (might change since those guys are in a tough competition).

Mr. Locke, since this is a recurring question, perhaps we should put up a wki page with a table of hosters and registrars plus prices and experiences specific for photography and galleries.
Your pagezone has very limited space/bandwidth for 12.5$. My hostgator has unlimited space/traffic for 4.5$ (1 domain) or 7.95$ (unlimited domains).

@madelaide: if your site is plain HTML it doesn't take any bandwidth and I have a lot of bandwidth to spare on hostgator. You can put it there for free if you can handle FTP. You will just have to register your domain and put the namesevers to hostgator and I will set up the folder and FTP. If you prefer a free photography solution without popups, there is always good old multiply - my account there is flemishdreams and I use it as a sample gallery and semi-social networking site to local photographers/models in Northern Mindanao. It only has limited non-disturbing Google ads, no popups.
« Last Edit: April 25, 2009, 23:31 by FlemishDreams »

PaulieWalnuts

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« Reply #9 on: April 26, 2009, 05:38 »
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I use page-zone.com, but one hosting site is pretty much as good as another.
I disagree. I used Hostway.com for a while and the experience wasn't all that great.

« Reply #10 on: April 26, 2009, 08:34 »
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Ah, well, my experience is a bit limited, I guess.  I've used them for 8 or 9 years, with just a couple of issues.  My needs aren't too great though, although I've never had a bandwidth issue, even with all the banners I serve to my iStock pages.  I use goDaddy to register my domains, and their autorenewal is a nice feature.

tan510jomast

« Reply #11 on: April 26, 2009, 10:26 »
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If you prefer a free photography solution without popups, there is always good old multiply - my account there is flemishdreams and I use it as a sample gallery and semi-social networking site to local photographers/models in Northern Mindanao. It only has limited non-disturbing Google ads, no popups.


FD, I just opened an account there to replace my geocities too. But the photos do not have a link feature. Am I looking at the wrong place to edit my photos. On geocities, each photo has a link to my stock site. I like to do the same here.
How do I do that?

« Reply #12 on: April 26, 2009, 10:29 »
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I have lots of sites hosted with bluehost.  They are $7/month with unlimited ad on domains / traffic / mysql etc. so a good deal.  They have also been rated most reliable by quite a few reviews.  In a recent gizmodo poll they rated #2 as the best web host in regards to price and reliability.

Here is my referral link if you end up choosing them.

and i will also second FlemishDreams post.  I use namecheap to register my domains - very easy to navigate site with cheap prices.
« Last Edit: April 27, 2009, 01:10 by leaf »

« Reply #13 on: April 26, 2009, 10:47 »
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Ah, well, my experience is a bit limited, I guess.  I've used them for 8 or 9 years, with just a couple of issues.  My needs aren't too great though, although I've never had a bandwidth issue, even with all the banners I serve to my iStock pages.  I use goDaddy to register my domains, and their autorenewal is a nice feature.

If you're happy with it, don't leave. A blog, even if very popular like yours, doesn't require that much bandwidth. My needs are just different since one of my clients runs a video site and I'm using the slack for backing up my essential data like photos. One size doesn't fit all and it's overkill and time/money wasted to fix a running engine.
« Last Edit: April 26, 2009, 11:17 by FlemishDreams »

« Reply #14 on: April 26, 2009, 10:58 »
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On geocities, each photo has a link to my stock site. I like to do the same here. How do I do that?

Not unexpectedly, I turned their entire design upside down. But I didn't try the link, although it should be possible with some (timewasting) hacking on every photo. I just use multiply to hook local models and photographers, but they will never buy stock. Not in an area of the world where you can buy Vista, CS4 and all recent movies for 1$ in the mall. Sad but true. The US and the old parts of the EU are islands in a sea of piracy and scamming. I'm working on a Coppermine mod that will acknowledge links to sales and I hope to have it ready near the end of May. There is still smugmug of course, and Flickr, but my paying Flickr account was banned because I put up links to sales. In the end, you get what you pay for.

« Reply #15 on: April 26, 2009, 11:11 »
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I have lots of sites hosted with bluehost.  They are $5.00/month with unlimited ad on domains / traffic / mysql etc. so a good deal.  They have also been rated most reliable by quite a few reviews.

Yes that was the one I mentioned before (forgetting the name). It's definitely better than hostgator, which ranks amongst the best. When I transfer, I will use your referral. I need to check it out first on a test domain. We should stress to all interested that domain registration and hosting should remain separated. The free domains on all hosters is a way to keep you hostage. Hosters come and go, and their conditions change over the years.

« Reply #16 on: April 26, 2009, 11:15 »
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I disagree. I used Hostway.com for a while and the experience wasn't all that great.

I think bluehost of Leaf is a better replacement. The unlimited space will allow you to backup photos too. Hostgator has password-protected directories and hotlink-prevention but I guess bluehost has it too.

« Reply #17 on: April 26, 2009, 15:12 »
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I have lots of sites hosted with bluehost.  They are $5.00/month with unlimited ad on domains / traffic / mysql etc. so a good deal.  They have also been rated most reliable by quite a few reviews.  In a recent gizmodo poll they rated #2 as the best web host in regards to price and reliability.

Here is my referral link if you end up choosing them.

and i will also second FlemishDreams post.  I use namecheap to register my domains - very easy to navigate site with cheap prices.


I also use bluehost with no issues so far. Godaddy for domain registration, but I must say I find their constant email offers unprofessional to say the least.

rinderart

« Reply #18 on: April 26, 2009, 15:15 »
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I like Betterphotos.com Only because it's nothing But Image makers.

« Reply #19 on: April 26, 2009, 19:35 »
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If we register the domain with godaddy or namecheap, do the hosts use it without any problems further, if we want to move to another host?

I read good things about Bluehost, Hostgator, Justhost and WebzPro.  At the same time I read severe complaints.  It makes it all so confusing!  :)

Complaints about Bluehost seem to be recent.  I read people who say they had been with them for years complaining of downtime and poor support.  Any experiences with this?

Hostgator cheapest plan costs US$4.95/mo only if I sign up for 3 years (and pay ahead for the 3 years, as I understand).  The regular monthly price is 8.95 though, not too bad, but others are cheaper.

WebzPro doesn't accept customers from Russia.  I wonder if they will accept from Brazil.   :-\  Other than that, mostly what I read about them is positive.  Their plans don't offer unlimited storage and bandwidth.

Justhost has also had good reviews lately. Their price is very good US$3.95 monthly - don't know if also requiring one or more years paid ahead.  I read they accept Paypal.

Pardon my ignorance, but what a difference does a Linux Web Host vs a Windows Web Host makes?  Can I upload my HTML files normally to any of them?

« Reply #20 on: April 26, 2009, 20:17 »
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I am checking those hosters and it seems none of them has a backup in their service.  Some charge it extra if we want it.  Gosh, I would expect at least a weekly backup in case something goes wrong in their servers!  Now if they lost the data, I would have to upload everything again?   ???

« Reply #21 on: April 26, 2009, 20:23 »
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Adelaide, it depends where you actually create your site. I have all the files of my website on my computer anyway, so even if it all got lost, I could easily re-upload everything.

« Reply #22 on: April 26, 2009, 20:54 »
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GA,

I only think they should have something.  Although I would have everything in my computer, it would still be a pain uploading everything again.  In all these years in Geocities (I started there in 1996), I never had any problem neither on the paid account nor on the free ones, until recently when all my site (the paid one!) disappeared and I couldn't even log in to my account.  It took them two days to solve it, but everything was back there.  Given this happened only in the paid account, I suspect there was some accounting problem, although my monthly fee had already been charged to Paypal a few days earlier.

In Hostgator's live chat, I was informed they do weekly backups, but they don't even guarantee that.  Justhost says in their features page that they offer "Courtesy Site Backups", but the live chat guy didn't know what that is (he only knew about a charged backup service) and said I should ask support about this. Bluehost said they do backups but also don't guarante anything.


« Reply #23 on: April 26, 2009, 21:31 »
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I agree. Backup service is definitely valuable. It gives a piece of mind, especially if we invested a lot of time and effort into the site. I am interested to see which one you decide to go with. I had a problem with 110mb.com yesterday, and my site is still not fully up (just after I recommended them). If a problem happens again, I would consider moving to another hosting site too.

« Reply #24 on: April 26, 2009, 22:19 »
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Well, so far I have a tendency for Hostgator due to its better price.  Justhost and Bluehost cost about the same for a one-year contract (about US$110), and I will wait JH's reply about the backup.  HG and JH are offering a 20% discount, so this gives them a slight advantage over BH.

Fatcow is at an excellent price (US$66 a year), does anyone have any feedback on them?  They offer a free 2GB Carbonite backup, and they have a daily server backup (possibly again without guarantee, but at least it's more frequent than Hostgator's).



 

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