Can anyone recommend a good web hosting service? I just need something simple for my personal homepage, about 100 megs and very low traffic. I’d prefer a reasonably priced commercial (not free) account, as I found free hosting services to have too many restrictions and/or annoying ads.
Also, how much trouble/cost is it to obtain and maintain a domain name, and is it easy to transfer it to a new hosting company if I have problems with one? I like the idea of being able to keep the same HTTP address for a long time.
Transferring to a new hosting company usually just entails pointing your domain to the new host’s nameservere. This may take a day or two to propagate through the net.
As far as the hosting, I know you said you didn’t want free, but the 3-years-free from 1and1 has been working for me, and my brother, and several friends (granted it’s only been a month). Just don’t register the domain through them, and keep a backup of everything, and you’ll be fine if they implode.
For paid hosting, I can recommend CrystalTech . A company I’m involved with is transferring their site to CrystalTech, and we’re happy so far. My site-designer neighbor has about eight clients using their hosting. As she puts it: “They have smart people answer the phone.” Their $7.95 per month plan sounds like it would work for you.
For a barrage of hosting reviews, rants, and comments, see the forums at Web Hosting Talk
I have a couple domains hosted at Pair Networks . I have had no complaints about their service. Their plans start at $5.95 per month, which provides 100 MB of disk space.
I recently needed to transfer my own site to a new host, and I went to a lot of time and trouble to find the best people offering the best deal, and this included consulting several industry insiders. I’m glad I did:
I paid for my name for ten years in one payment at Network Solutions cause I knew they would be around later. All but one of the cheap or free hosts I used are gone now. I use MySiteSpace.com now, $3.33 per month for 250 megs.
Thanks for the recommendations! I’ll look into all suggestions, though I’m inclined to try 1and1’s free promotion first.
By the way, what’s the deal with Network Solutions? I thought they controlled the .com and a few other top level domains, but does that mean if I register a .com address through someone else, that company would just handle the transaction with Network Solutions? But if that’s the case, why is it more expensive to deal directly with Network Solutions? (At least it appears that way, comparing zoltar7’s links with Network Solutions’)
Network Solutions used to have a monopoly on domain registratrations for “.com”, and, I think, “.net” and maybe other TLD’s. That has no longer been true for some time. You can go to any registrar now and they will maintain your registration.
I tried for it but I can’t hear the code that you get on the phone. Read their agreement first cause it does state they can raise the rate in 30 days if they want to.
They have a variety of plans starting at the v100 for 5.95 , I believe,but its not recommended as its a virtual account.
here is another link to a webhosting board that deals with almost everything you wanted to know.
Anyways , it cost me about 25 bucks for the domain for the year , but thats a canadian .ca domain , so your prices may vary depending on what .biz .home .info etc that you want and who you register it with.
It will take about 4 days after you activate it , for it to propogate over the internet.
With Jag , you should be paying minimum 9 bucks a month , with no pop ups or ads.