Well, I'm looking for a host that can host my website, which will basically be 99% forum (thus requiring php/mysql), it won't be big at first but I expect it to grow quite quickly due to both the local and the global communitys I know.

So far I've been recommended a company called 'UCVHost' by a local store here, they offer unix shared hosting at 12.75 a month, gig of space, and unlimited bandwidth (or so it is written), I am wondering has anyone here had any experience with that company, and how 'unlimited' bandwidth usually is?

Other than that, does anyone have any idea how much space and bandwidth I would need both at first and later on? and what hosts can provide that to me at a decent cost?

Finally, slightly unrelated but I thought I'd throw it in here, anyone got a recommendation on the most space/bandwidth saving board, without lowering the quality too much (that is, not an old perl board :P)?

Thanks in advance. :)

1st -- I usually suggest avoiding deals with unlimited bandwidth and hard drive space since neither really exists. Small sites usually don't run into issues, but if you start using a lot of that "unlimited" space, I've heard stories of companies finding excuses to kick you out. I have not heard anything about this particular company.

2nd -- The 2 forums I would suggest are PhPBB http://www.phpbb.com and vBulletin http://www.vbulletin.com . PhPBB is free, but lacks some features that vBulletin has (like the ability to subscribe to an entire forum). Some hosts have auto-installer programs that will make installing this a breeze too (an example is Fantastico with cPanel, but that's not the only one). vBulletin isn't free, but it seems to be the industry leader. Whenever you go to a quality bulletin board, it seems to be running vBulletin. Both are friendly with system resources.

3rd -- You can fill out a quote and have members that are subscribed to that area send you information on their service..

http://www.webhostingtalk.com/request.php

Best of luck to you!

ugh, it's too early in the morning. Meant to hit edit, not quote :)

As stated many times before, unlimited bandwidth is a lie - no provider can possibly give this to you as it simply does not exist. EVERYTHING has its limtis.

Start off with a smaller plan at a better known company; perhaps 100 MB Space/3-5 GB Bandwidth. Many providers will be able to provide these type of specs at a very reasonable price.

As far as BB, I'd recommend vBulletin if you have some money to spend. By far the best :) If you'd prefer to go free for now, Invision Board gets my vote for the best free.

Hope this helps, and welcome to WHT! :)

Thank you both for the fast replies, but still a few things confuse me.

Number one, will 100mb and 3-5gb bandwidth a month would really be enough for a forum? and if only at the begining, I do not really want to be switching hosts every month because the forum grows.

Number two, "a better known company" is nice and all, but I would much rather a name or two, some recommendations.

And finally, in the quote/request thing, I used to think that there are two kinds of hosting, dedicated (my own server) and shared (my pretend-server, among others on one machine), however now I see that there is dedicated, shared and colocation, what does this mean?

In the beginning, a small plan should work just fine. As you get more users, you might need more space as message history takes up HD space, and users visiting takes up bandwidth. Look for a company that can expand with you. Most companies offer easy upgrade paths, not only between plans, but by allowing you to tack on extra HD and bandwidth as well. You shouldn't need to switch hosts if you outgrow your current plan.

1. You would not need to switch hosts, many would by happy to simply upgrade you to their next plan. Some hosts let you purchase additional bandwidth without upgrading as well. If your forum is not currently very active, I don't see why you'd need more than this to start out with.

2. Some of the better known hosts would be unitedhosting.co.uk, hostnexus.com, square-network.com. While I can't give a personal recommendation as I have not personally used their services, I have heard many positive things about their customer support.

3. Shared - You share the server along with other users
Dedicated - Your own server
Colocated - This is when you own your own equipment and have it housed in a datacenter such as ThePlanet, Burst, etc.

Hope this helps!

try www(dot)disofthosting(dot)com - I've used them before and setup up many php forums using their plans.

Well, it's not that my forum is currently not very active, my forum is currently not even made, which is why I wasn't already aware of how much bandwidth I actually need, thank you both again for your replies, I will look in to the hosts P-nut suggested and will see if they fit my needs.

As for the post right above here, It suspiciously looks like advertising/spam, could anyone clarify please? :)

As far as hosting is concerned, I cannot really add to what others have said.

HOWEVER, for forum software, you really need to keep your eyes on SMF (http://www.simplemachines.org). Very close to a public beta release, and quite honestly, I prefer it over even it's predecesor, YaBB SE.

A friend of mine just got one of the $8 accounts at midPhase and set up a phpBB board on it. So far he likes it, but he's only had the account a short time. Setting up the forum was easy (auto-install).

I've used a phpBB forum on my site for about 1-1/2 years and it's nicely customizeable though is lacking some features that paid forums have (it's method of keeping track of unread messages is not good)

Originally posted by Brutus32
Well, it's not that my forum is currently not very active, my forum is currently not even made, which is why I wasn't already aware of how much bandwidth I actually need,


A smaller plan would do you just fine to start with. As already mentioned there are several BB that are very easy to install (and free) To support the BB, just make sure your host does support PHP, MySQL (most do) Some hosts offer a one click install from the control panel, but if not a forum install takes no more than 10 minutes and a good host will assist.
These are great pre-sales questions for a potential host. I recommend emailing your choices with some questions.
Good Luck :D

I currently have boards up using VB (http://www.vbulletin.com) and Invision (http://www.invisionboard.com/) and have also used PHPBB (http://www.phpbb.com) in the past and there is not a great difference in the three for smaller forums in my opinion. Invision and VB are probably my preferred.

A lot of the free ones come with autoinstallers with many hosts, you may try setting up a few of them in the beginning and experiment. Or if you are going to purchase a skin, find one you like and match the board to it.

Good Luck.

I used to be an employee of CommuniTech.Net and I assure you that there is no such thing as "unlimited bandwidth". Small forums are fine on a virtual server, but once they got bigger and started taxing the servers and eating up bandwidth, we were forced to talk to the owners into moving hosts or getting a dedicated server. Sort of a crappy thing to do, but I can see it both ways. Just beware is what I say.

How much bandwidth do you think will be used per month? And how much are you willing to spend per month/year?