This webhosting thing is brutal...support is a nightmare...after two years and two webhosts i'm starting to get fried. Anyway...it seems that every host I have looked at recently has people streaming away with horror stories...i've got my own.

All I need is cgi-bin, perl, sendmail, and decent support and uptime. Does anyone have any suggestions for a shared host? I recently looked at xo.com...any comments?

I'm thinking that maybe if I move in to the 20-30 dollar range I might get better results. just a theory though. could just be paying more for crappy service.

Can you post your email address or pm me?

www.bigbiz.com was always good for me at $20 per month for 100 Mb space and 4 Gb traffic.

I'm now using a $19.95 500 Mb / 2 Gb virtual server account at www.cagedtornado.com which is also pretty good. That might be worth your consideration too.

I've been using Blacksun.ca for 6 months on their lite account (25MB) with no problems whatsoever. They may not be the cheapest, but they've been reliable and their support people are quick to respond to any questions I've had.

While it's on the bare-bones side when it comes to control panels and glitz, I had wonderful luck with Hurricane Electric. Fast support, but then, I never needed support. Incredible uptime for me.

http://www.he.net

Stay away from XO. They're a great provider, but a lousy host, if you ask me.

Considering that I'm a newbie, I don't know what sendmail is, but a for good host in the 25-30 dollar range I'd recommend hosting4less.com (http://www.hosting4less.com). For their basic webhosting, the professional plan seems like your best bet: 400mb, 15gb monthly transfer at 24.95/month. If you feel like spending more ($5/month more) then their developer plan offers 600mb with 25gb monthly transfer. I've been with them for a year now and I've never been displeased with their service or support. -Ves

whn

www.www-hosting.net

they are very good with customers and support issues

for $20 per month, you get a lot from downtownhost.com and aletiahosting.com.

I always get fast replies from Jorge (Jedito here) with downtownhost, and always get replies within a day from aletia.

For $19.95/m you get a very good service from ouroasis.com (www.auctiondesk.net) : 400MB 12/GB per month
POP Email Accounts Unlimited IP Address Your Own
FTP/Telnet Accounts Unlimited
I hosted a domain and am very satisfied

You might also want to look at Hosting Matters. Whatever host you choose, for $20/mo you should expect nothing less than fast friendly support responses, nice features and good uptime. :)

Generally speaking, you get what you pay for. Although you'll probably be able to get what you want for around 10 bucks.

Thanks for the input...forgot to say I like Unix/Linux for hosting and rely on Perl. My site is almost totally driven by Perl scripts, so a host that is sympathetic to maintaining Perl and Perl libraries is crucial.

I haven't heard of any of the hosting companies that have been suggested.

Please, more feedback from experienced Perl programmers and webmasters.

thanks

I saw a topic discussing about what kind scripts to ban on the hosting plans. You may want to check it.