Good Day to all the experts and gurus of web hosting!

I have been searching high and low for a reliable web host and it seems to me that it is getting more and more confusing as the days goes by.

If you could recommend me a host to accomodate the following requirements :

1) Creation of POP3 email accounts with unlimited disk space quota like halfpricehosting.com. I have asked their sales team and I am astonished that I could have unlimited disk space quota because the emails are housed in another server. Interestingly, I am also allowed to have my own POP3 and SMTP servers in the form of mail.mydomain.com. The host is using Windows NT platform.


2) If the above is not possible as claimed, then I would like a web host which has as much disk space allowance possible if the email and web pages share the same disk space quota.

3) At the same time, because I am in my final year of my course and I will be starting on an e-commerce project, I am wanting to prepare myself in the event that my professional wants me to have some e-commerce elements like database.. etc etc..

If you ask me now on what e-commerce features I am looking for, honestly, I do not have a clue. :)

4) Like I have said, because I am a student, my budget is really tight. Preferably, it would be less than $10 per month and I will almost certainly sign up for a one-year plan. I have figured that if it the cost is anything above $15 per month, I will sign up with ***** as they offer the best package so far. With 2GB of disk space and unlimited POP3 emails, data transfer, etc etc..



I am also wondering.. how is it that the control panel of infinethosting.com and telaweb.com is the same?

I would greatly appreciate if any expert out there is willing to guide me somewhat to a good and reliable host to suit my needs after hearing and reading so much about bad hosts.

Thanks heap!

Cheers,
Eric

Eric,

You get an F. If you're even considering *****, it is clear you haven't done your homework, and that's why you get the F. Heck, you haven't even cracked the books open. It is so easy to find reasons to avoid them.

Fortunately, you get to make up the work and try again.

You can do better next time. ;-D

Now I know you dont get 2gig of space at CFoxhost.com, but he does give u 10 email addys, 20 megs, about a 1000 megs of transfer, for 10 dollars. If i misquoted anything tell me Chuck. But there are others out there such as, hostingmatters.com. But just make sure you do a better time of studying. The two I gave you are the ones i will highly recommend, I have seen both in work as far as control banners and such. I am not as knowing for hostingmatters prices as i am CFoxhost. Both are EXTREMLY reliable and good people run them.

On another note, Can someone tell me how to get the little wavy smiley guy, or south park? I most of the rest. ADMIN is there a page for the icons?

Eric,

I have no personal experience with *****, but have been researching webhosts for couple weeks now. I can't say I've seen much positive feedback on them. As Duster suggests, you need to do more homework.

Deb Suran's site is really excellent to begin your homework:
http://www.forumhosts.com/hosts.htm

Originally posted by redarrow

1) Creation of POP3 email accounts with unlimited disk space quota like halfpricehosting.com. I have asked their sales team and I am astonished that I could have unlimited disk space quota because the emails are housed in another server. Interestingly, I am also allowed to have my own POP3 and SMTP servers in the form of mail.mydomain.com. The host is using Windows NT platform.


2) If the above is not possible as claimed, then I would like a web host which has as much disk space allowance possible if the email and web pages share the same disk space quota.


The above is effectively *half* possible. Of course, unlimited is never really unlimited... but if for you 3-4 gb of HD space is unlimited, you will probably be able to get it rather easily with many hosts. Your own mail.yourdomain.com mail servers are quite easy to set up, thus you should get them with any host as well.

I think that the point about CI probably went through so I won't emphasize on it anymore. Simply research about them a little bet here or anywhere else and you will see that they seems to be good dedicated or co-locations, but are not at virtual hosting.

A couple of things...

TCG : You can get the South Park guy (Eric Cartman) by putting colons around cartman e.g. (colon)cartman(colon), which produces :cartman: To find similar smilies, when you post a reply or a new post, you will see two very small links near the top of the page in the line named 'Posts : HTML code is OFF. Smilies are ON. vB code is ON. [IMG] code is OFF.' It's the line before the 'breadcrumbs' links indicating the level of the forum you're at (i.e. forum/topic/post).

Eric :

I won't even bother going into *****'s pathetic failings, since the others have already covered it.

Both infinethosting.com and telaweb.com are not recommended due to other customers around other forums complaining of poor technical support, problems with uptime and other consistent technical glitches. Both hosts have the same control panel because they either resell space for the same company or they are owned by the same company. You will get lots of instances of this around the Net.

With your tight student budget, unfortunately you are not going to get a lot. Here on the Net, the 'What you pay is what you get' adage is quite true. The closest I can recommend is Below10Host @ http://www.below10host.com who offer some very good deals.

Here's a few other forums to continue your research :

http://www.sitepointforums.com
http://www.scriptkeeper.com/cgi-bin/Ultimate.cgi and click on Web Hosts & ISPs
http://www.tips-tricks.com/board.htm
http://www.hostspot.com
http://www.freewebspace.net and click on Paid Hosting board.

One final reminder : never trust anyone claiming 'unlimited bandwidth' or similar - 95% of the time there will be a specified limit in their Terms of Services. At the same time, hosts can shut you down whenever they want if you've exceeded a pre-determined limit.

The very best of luck!

GOSH!

Didn't realised that ***** have such bad history! Thanks to people like Duster, Bill, Felix and BC that newbies like me are now more aware to the pitholes of web hosting companies.

Many thanks to the references quoted and the recommendations given. At least, I am sure that I will not subscribe to ***** :)

Seriously, ***** have offered such a package that newbies will be so tempted to subscribe. Everything that one will want is there.. 2GB disk space, unlimited bandwidth, unlimited pop3 accounts, telnet account, etc etc... and their website looks so professional with all the confident assurance of their network centre. All these are further boosted by the fact that they are like a award-winning web host. Gosh.. I am so relieved to hear from old timers here that I am so grateful at the moment. :)

With my budget of less than $10 per month, I have more or less short-listed a few hosts. I hope that with your in-depth experience, one could give opinions...

1) halfpricehosting.com (because of their unique unlimited pop3 disk space quota)
2) below10host.com (strongly recommended by BC.. as seen in many other threads)
3) hostmatters.com
4) websitesource.com (they seems to have the same control panel everywhere. the one which looks like the window of a microsoft windows control panel. by any chance, does anyone know who is the master re-seller of this service? looks impressive!)
5) tera-byte.com (what is the difference for a host using a RaQ3 and unix/window?)
6) pair.com
7) westhost.com (seems good with many recommendations)
8) primemaster.com (zerosetup or something)
9) rockethost.com


Which do you think in your expert opinion offers reliable link, speed and technical support (cos i am a newbie :)!)? I would like to have a host with speedy links as I will be retrieving my mails from Europe and sometimes Asia and I am not patient when my mailbox is flooded with file attachments like 10mb from friends who send them from their offices with high speed connections. Poor me is only using dial-up :(

Gosh.. my jaws are still wide open after reading the reference/history of *****... this is so scary! :(

Thanks heap! You guys are an aweful bunch!

Cheers,
Eric

Eric,

Research, research, research..... And a bit of luck will get you the right host. ;)

Originally posted by redarrow
GOSH!

Didn't realised that ***** have such bad history! Thanks to people like Duster, Bill, Felix and BC that newbies like me are now more aware to the pitholes of web hosting companies.

Many thanks to the references quoted and the recommendations given. At least, I am sure that I will not subscribe to ***** :)

Seriously, ***** have offered such a package that newbies will be so tempted to subscribe. Everything that one will want is there.. 2GB disk space, unlimited bandwidth, unlimited pop3 accounts, telnet account, etc etc... and their website looks so professional with all the confident assurance of their network centre. All these are further boosted by the fact that they are like a award-winning web host. Gosh.. I am so relieved to hear from old timers here that I am so grateful at the moment. :)


It's quite tempting on first seeing *****'s offerings to grab the deal, which of course means more (disgruntled) customers. Unfortunately, you know all those 'awards' CI receives? They're from other host sites (not HostInvestigator, but others) which companies like CI pays thousands of dollars for advertising and to 'rig' rankings. Quite sad, but true.

1) halfpricehosting.com

Mixed reports. Initially quite a bad reputation with reports varying from non-existent tech support to microwave links bailing out whenever strong winds blow through their NOC. Apparently in the last few months they have been trying to get better and now seem to be improving, but still many doubts remain.

2) below10host.com (strongly recommended by BC.. as seen in many other threads)

LOL! I love them to bits, since they had excellent tech support, the reliability of being on Alabanza (a hosting network with astonishing reliability and speed) and great prices. I actually just shut my account down with them since I only needed to do ASP development (which isn't possible on Alabanza servers) and I've moved on to a Win2K host... But that's another story. :)

3) hostmatters.com
Another Alabanza host, run by the lovely ladies Annette and Stephanie, whose opinions you will have seen around the forum. Great ladies, great service, great host - what more? (and ignore the ramblings of Davey_j if he pops his head out of the grave again - if you've searched most of the posts you'll understand).

4) websitesource.com
Yet another Alabanza host. That control panel comes originally from Alabanza and allows hosts to customise it to their needs. Quite a few positive posts in other forums, but check to be certain.

5) tera-byte.com (what is the difference for a host using a RaQ3 and unix/window?)
Run by Steve Keyser and based in Edmonton, Canada, an excellent host with great support and many members around this forum (and others) use Tera-byte.
The difference between a RAQ and Unix/Windows is that RAQs run a version of Unix, but the machines used are quite different from your standard web server, with a very easy to use control panel. If you'd like some further info or would like to play around with the CP, then check out Cobalt's site at http://www.cobalt.com and click on the appropriate section.

6) pair.com
A host with extraordinary reliability. Support is suspect however.

7) westhost.com (seems good with many recommendations)
They claim to have unlimited bandwidth, but an inspection of their terms of service puts the limit at 3GB (around standard). Haven't heard much negatives, so worth a look.

8) primemaster.com (zerosetup or something)
Haven't heard of.

9) rockethost.com
Haven't heard of.

If you require speedy access and plenty of help, then either one of the Alabanza hosts (particularly HostMatters, since one of the ladies will go flat out to help you - I don't necessarily recommend Below10Host in newbies' cases because they do expect you to know enough) or Tera-byte (with the excellent RAQ CP) are recommended.

Hope this helps.

(btw, Eric, 'aweful bunch'? :D)

Eric,

I hope you mean we're an "awesome" bunch, as opposed to "aweful"....

I will only comment on one webhost on your list, since I've had no direct experience with any of them. Others will chime in soon with feedback. As I've been shopping myself, my experience thus far with looking into WestHost is this: they've gotten good reviews posted by people on a couple of sites, however, these were not forums....they were just places where people could post their review and rating. The real test is what you're doing now, posting your query in forums and seeing how others respond. When you narrow your list down, I'd suggest you post your list at the webmaster forum at Deja.com and see what people say there. (You could also do a search there, as they have a search function.) For me, the 'red flag' I got with WestHost, is that I sent an email to Westhost Sales with some questions about their TOS. It took them 3 DAYS to respond. And this was their Sales Department! Not a good sign.

Definitely do this. Read everyone's TOS. Send some emails asking questions, see how quickly they respond. If WestHost took 3 days to answer a prospective client, how long might they take once you are a client?

Also, run some diagnostic tests on your prospective webhost. Find out what server they'd put you on, get the address. Run ping tests, run NetMechanic (NetMechanic.com) , see how fast (or slow) everything works. (If you only run tests on the hosts' addresses, it will tell you something about the host, but since you'd unlikely be on that same server, it's important to know what server you'd be on and test this.) I believe good hosts will provide all the information you ask for and not be snippy about it. (I also didn't feel when I spoke to WestHost that I got a very friendly/helpful attitude.)

Hope this helps.

I can personally recommend http://www.terabyte.com they have been an excellent host for me. Support is fast and polite and the downtime is very low. The server i was on was down for about 20 minutes or so last night which is the first time in over 3 months it was down.

Also try looking at http://www.hostrocket.com ...... Not sure if they have the terms of service done yet but they have excellent support.

Gosh.. what was I thinking about?

AWEFUL? can't believe that I actually typed that in..

:)

Once again, thanks for your precious time sharing your very much valuable information!

I suppose I need to do plenty of research and reading.. and checking back here real real often!

Cheers,
Eric

BC.
Thanks you must read in ur :sleep: sleep, jyust playing. Thanks a lot, i nevered to guess to look there. these thing are pretty cool to add to a site. :idea: Totally forgot to look at the bottom of the screen, me so stupid :pukeface: Anyways thanks BC. :smash: :love:

:pukeface:

Oh... how lovely...

Eric,

Just as there are bad hosts... there are good hosts as well.

It is quite difficult to judge who is a "bad" and "good" hosting company... especially if you are a newbie... because there are many variables, situations, circumstances, differences in customer expectations at work here.

There are several different equations between hardware costs + bandwidth availability and costs + support costs + types of hosted sites/clients + low prices/bulk sales (or vice versa) at work for individual hosting companies to deal with.

My advice to you would be to LISTEN to what the experts in this forum advise you.

But do keep this in mind: if a hosting company offers you a "deal too good to be true"... it most probably will be just that... "too good to be true!"

Learner

TCG,

LOL! Not a problem... VBulletin is very cool and I sorta know how it works (backend wise and frontend). Only problem is it has problems with the *pukeface* smiley, which is a bit of a pain, but oh well.

P.S. I hope that love smiley wasn't meant for anyone in particular.... :eek:

BC,

What does front-end and back-end actually refer to?

Learner

Generally the backend refers to the CGI/database querying that goes on behind the scene (in a different location where the webserver are based). The front-end refers to the HTML,graphics,user interface (i.e. web-pages).

More commonly this is referred to as client/server. You are the client and the webserver is the server. You send a request to the server, the server processes it and send back a webpage.

It's confusing to begin with. Most people can't get there heads round it without having a go with it themselves. Some people think that there is a set webpage for every search item you enter into Yahoo, MSN, Google, Altavista etc... This is not true, each time you perform a search the webserver makes a query on the database and returns to you the results (it makes a webpage specifically for your search). Equally some people think that when they search the browser downloads the whole search database and then searches. Again not true.

Okay, so I've probably lost you. Best bet is to look up 'what is client/server?'

SysAdmin... no, you didn't lose me up there at all!

I found my doubts getting removed instead!

The additional info you mentioned about the search engines was quite informative too.

Thanks!

Learner
-----------------------------------------------------------
Oooh! Am learning so much out here in the forum today!
And, that too, in so little a while!! :)

I would have to say there are probably just as many good hosts as there are bad. Just do some research and perfoms searches in forums like this one and the others some folks listed here. Its good to see a newbie not get burned by a host like CI by coming here first, good work guys and gals. Good luck in your search, and remeber before your final decision you may want to ask folks here about who you are settling on .

BC,
Sorry spoken for at the moment. Vbullentin is awesome, I think i will start learning all i can about them,

chris

Chris, one warning : the more you learn about vBulletin, the more chance you have of becoming a vBulletin addict like me! ;)