I am looking to put up a site.. going to have forums, nothing fancy.. I anticipate it'll grow at a fairly slow rate.. um, 5 new users a week or so with an initial base of 100-200 or so?

I want to accept attachments up to a maximum of 1MB..

which hosting company should I go with? THank you!!

DIXIESYS seems to have fairly competitive pricing as well.. thoughst anyone?!?

out of those two, I'd recomend HostRocket. They're very well known here. If my memory is right, there was a thread about Ventures Online being down or something like that last week.


Anyways, try doing a search for both companies.

HostRocket would be my choice, but like I've heard their support team has dropped in quality, but when it comes to their hosting, I would always suggest it.

I haven't used either one of their shared services. However, the server I have at RackFast hasn't had any network downtime yet. The network is always pretty fast, and Justin's been there for when I screw something up.

I was hosted on a VO Dedicated server through another company awhile back. Didn't really notice anything bad. But, that was almost a year ago, so their network could have changed.

I never try any of those host, but I'd pick VO. Why ??

Because I received a spam from HostRocket last week ..

Cheers,

I'd go with Ventures Online. Hostrocket likes to suspend accounts running forums.

Depepnds on what you need. HostRocket is a budget provider, VenturesOnline is more mid-range. I've been with both, and VO has better support and uptime; but VO costs more than twice as much. For the money, HostRocket is a good value.

Personally, I'd stick with the mid-range companies. They tend to provide far better support, take reliability a lot more seriously.

I think price should'n be the bottom line unless you don't care about the quality of your website / webhosting experience.

Cheers
Jeff

Originally posted by IGS Host
If my memory is right, there was a thread about Ventures Online being down or something like that last week.

If this is the thread to which you are referring, the end did not justify the topic (not your fault but the fault of the original poster, who in my unhumble opinion owes VO an apology for the wording of the topic).

http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?threadid=144545

Originally posted by DesignQueue
Hostrocket likes to suspend accounts running forums.

Some hosts have prohibitions in their terms of service regarding forums in general, or certain forum software in particular. I think that it would be a good idea to discuss this issue in advance with any hosts that you are considering. It seems reasonable for any host to suspend any site that spikes resources to the detriment of other websites on a shared server. Rather than speculate one way or the the other, you cannot go wrong by approaching potential webhosts beforehand and getting their opinions. It goes without saying (but I'll say it anyway) that one should carefully read terms of service and acceptable use policies of any potential host.

Originally posted by drhonk
I never try any of those host, but I'd pick VO. Why ??

Because I received a spam from HostRocket last week ..

Cheers,

If you have ever received any mail from us directly at all, it is because you were either:

a. a customer of ours at one point

or

b. a member of our forums.

These are the only two mailing lists we even have let alone use. In either case, it is certainly not spam.

-Brendan

Originally posted by DesignQueue
I'd go with Ventures Online. Hostrocket likes to suspend accounts running forums.

Its actually a game. Every day we randomly suspend 1 of the over 1000 forum sites that we host just for kicks.

Seriously though, if you believe this then I've got a cold fusion powered car and a map to the end of the rainbow to sell you as well.

Either us or VO is very capable of hosting your site as described with lots of room to grow.

-Brendan

Well if you need dirt cheep hosting for pretty average uptime, then go with HostRocket. You can expect ticket responses to be within 24 hours.

But if you're looking at ticket responses within 1 hour, with solid quality hosting, I'd go with VO. I havn't been with them before, but it's what i know hearsay.

Venturesonline of course :)

I can tell you from my current experience, that VO support has been really helpful.

I currently have the v200 shared plan with them. Every ticket I've entered, has been answered within a few hours, and they have always been helpful in fixing the problem.

Overall I think they are a very solid hosting provider.

WOW - tons of responses.. thanks for all the feedback guys.. I'm just trying to make sure that once I setup the forums, that the hosting won't go down often and willbe somewhat reliably.. I am willing to pay a reasonable amount, just as long as the service is there.. :)

Originally posted by bluersx510
WOW - tons of responses.. thanks for all the feedback guys.. I'm just trying to make sure that once I setup the forums, that the hosting won't go down often and willbe somewhat reliably.. I am willing to pay a reasonable amount, just as long as the service is there.. :)

Just remember you get what you pay for. You pay cheap, you get cheap. You pay more you will probably get more.

I have used both in the past. My summary

HostRocket - excellent spead, support is adequat, good features, and alot of bang for the buck.

Ventures Online - Speed while I was with them was Adequat, Support was Excellent, good features, a little bit more expensive.

Hi

I'am hosted at Ventures Online and their support is very good.

It is not cheap. You pay what you get.

Regards.

Is it true that Hostrocket doesn't like accounts w/ a forum? I will have a forum which is the main purpose of my site.. thanks..

Originally posted by cove
Some hosts have prohibitions in their terms of service regarding forums in general, or certain forum software in particular. I think that it would be a good idea to discuss this issue in advance with any hosts that you are considering. It seems reasonable for any host to suspend any site that spikes resources to the detriment of other websites on a shared server. Rather than speculate one way or the the other, you cannot go wrong by approaching potential webhosts beforehand and getting their opinions. It goes without saying (but I'll say it anyway) that one should carefully read terms of service and acceptable use policies of any potential host.

I love to quote myself. :)

Meanwhile, many hosts ban certain forum software, such as UBB. Most don't have a problem with phpBB, Invision, or vBulletin -- depending on the demand.

I'd say (again) talk to your prospective host. I don't think that there is any incentive for any host to mislead you on this subject (and it is unlikely that VO or HR would in any event).

VO for the best support. Their network is very fast and their providers have great peering. Very good for run a vbulletin forum on it.

Have a bulk reseller account with Ventures Online, and would highly highly recommend them.

The servers are lightining fast (4gb of ram - Dual CPU's on the one I am on - perfect for running a forum) as is their network, and the support could not be better.

Would not hesitate to recommend VO to anyone :)

My main YaBB SE Forum is hosted at Ventures Online. No problems there with it.

A lot of hosts have problems with flat-file Perl driven forums, because they use up enough resources to stop a host over-selling their servers. ;)

php/MySQL driven forums suh as YaBB SE, vBulletin, IPB, and phpbb (etc) are relatively efficient and usually widely accepted. If you're running a CGI I really would consider converting to a php/MySQL version - lots of converters out there.

Originally posted by I, Brian
My main YaBB SE Forum is hosted at Ventures Online. No problems there with it.

A lot of hosts have problems with flat-file Perl driven forums, because they use up enough resources to stop a host over-selling their servers. ;)

php/MySQL driven forums suh as YaBB SE, vBulletin, IPB, and phpbb (etc) are relatively efficient and usually widely accepted. If you're running a CGI I really would consider converting to a php/MySQL version - lots of converters out there.

Yes, I plan on going w/ php/mysql combo.. probably vBulletin. Speaking of which, how often do you guys do backups? And how difficult is it to do a backup of the database for mysql? Do you then FTP this locally so u have a backup copy? If I do change hosting later down the line, is it easy to restore this backup and have the board back up and running in no time? Thanks again everyone.. :)

How does VO's current hardware and pricing compare?
http://www.venturesonline.com/hosting/dedicated.php

VenturesOnline support is fantasic, several clients used them last year, and the dealings we had with them were always answered quite quickly, for dedicated servers they are a good port of call.