I'm looking for a host who offers as many features as Communitech but has good support. Communitech is the only host I can find that allows you to add cnames, anames, and even edit your mx record.

Do any other host offer these domain management features through their control panel?

Also, is Ultimate Bulletinboard the best choice for boards/forums? I want a host who will allows us to install such a board or who offers one as good as part of the package if that exist?

Thanks for your help.
Robert

http://www.cpanel.net, you can do dns records and all.

CentralInfo.net has been great so far for us. THey dont have Cold Fusion but that is the only drawback I have noticed. Their customer support however is awesome. Ive never gone more than an hour or two waiting for an email response.

Misty

Robert, Cpanel3 from VDI allows you to change your DNS entries.

Plesk also allows you to change dns entrys

Thanks for all your help.

So from what you have told me, any host who uses cpanel3 would have a DNS Management section in cpanel. Is that correct? And I guess plesk is a similar interface.

What about Ultimate Bulletin board. Is it the best choice?We need a good board that we can restrict access to for our student body.

Thanks,
Robert

UBB is fine, but it is a processor 'hog' so if you have many student users logging on at the same time there is a big chance your board will become far slower.

I suggest you consider UBB's alternative, vBulletin (http://www.vbulletin.com) - it's a bit faster, uses PHP/MySQL, and an excellent alternative to UBB.

I have went to the cpanel site and toured their demo. The only domain management they show is subdomains which would appear to just point to subdirectories. The home page appears to only list specs about the domain but no editing.

If cpanel host offer Management of mx records, a&c names, etc., please point me to where I can see an example of this screen.

Thanks Again.
Robert

I'm not sure what everyone is thinking by suggesting cpanel (which is great by the way). Misty's recomendations of centralinfo is good (a free DNS service), but cpanel is for a dedicated server (not a hosting account). I get the feeling you just want a host, not a dedicated server.

If you were to host with a VDI based host, you wouldn't have access to the DNS manager portion and thus it isn't what you are looking for. They will, however, have a very nice control panel for you to use, and you could couple that with the services of centralinfo and have a pretty complete setup.

Communitech offers a nice CP with lots of bells and whistles. Cpanel (provided with any vdi based host), offers similar features (which do vary slightly depending on *which* VDI based host you choose).

Vbulletin (the forum that you are looking at now), is in my opinion, much better than UBB, but there are a few free oje s that people like if you're short on cash and willing to use more of a beta version. They are good, but might have a bug here or there. There are 3-4 that seem decent however (and I'll try to gather links and edit this message unlesss someone else lists them first).

Side Note: Welcome to WebHostingTalk Robert!!!

Chicken,
Thanks for the info and the welcome. I believe your right, a combination of a Free DNS and a VDI host is the best.(What does VDI stand for anyway, Visual??)

I am looking for a virtual host and not dedicated at this point. I do think Communitech offers a great CP but I found out right away their support wasn't good. That is a shame.

I know you guys get asked for recommendations all the time, so here goes another. I'm not so much looking for cheap as I am reliable with good support and a good control panel. I don't think a high-volume host is what I want. Many of our students come from our site. I want good bandwidth, the ability to install vbulletin, and at least 50 pop accounts. A good chatroom included would be great too.

Please give any recommendations. And on a side note, how valid are ranking sites like tophost and hostindex? Both of them normally list Hostpro at the top. Is Hostpro a really good host? They appear to have very reasonable pricing.

Robert

Hello
If you have web hosting at Centralinfo.net they give you the deluxe DNS manager free with it.

Also, you could use Zoneedit.com.
We recently bought in their "advanced" service for our domain registration service but the free version is also pretty good.

Gordon

I will second Gordon's recommendation of ZoneEdit (http://www.zoneedit.com) - I use them for many of my domains and they have a top-notch DNS service.

Yes BC
I actually have the DNS records for the UK version of my web hosting site on a free Zoneedit account because it allows me to set up subdomains more easily than the Alabanza system.

So far I have had no DNS problems and that was one of the reasons I hired them to provide DNS on a commercial basis.

Its good when a service will let you try them for free like that.

Gordon

Originally posted by jumpwaves (What does VDI stand for anyway, Visual??)

I believe it is Virtual Development Incorporated, but anyway, VDI is basically just a popular NOC around here that hosts colocate/lease servers from. This board is hosted by a VDI based host.

I know you guys get asked for recommendations all the time, so here goes another. I'm not so much looking for cheap as I am reliable with good support and a good control panel. I don't think a high-volume host is what I want. Many of our students come from our site. I want good bandwidth, the ability to install vbulletin, and at least 50 pop accounts. A good chatroom included would be great too.

Please give any recommendations. And on a side note, how valid are ranking sites like tophost and hostindex? Both of them normally list Hostpro at the top. Is Hostpro a really good host? They appear to have very reasonable pricing.

Robert [/B]

I'm not sure if you've seen the listing of hosts posted in the Advertsing forum (http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?threadid=3053) but there are over 85 listed. Many of these are smaller hosts who are working very hard to give their customers better service than you could get from a larger operation. I agree that a smaller company might be better for you (I feel the same way).

I am not sure if Alabanza based hosts offer a chat room or not, but even if they don't, there are free services that you can sign up for which would add this. (Meaning I wouldn't necessarily rule out a host due to only the lack of chat).

Generally those ranking sites are worthless, and I'd check through that list, or possibly the some of the specials hosts here (members) have posted in the Advertising forum and see what interests you. Eeryone will help you narrow it down if you have a few that you areconsidering (or maybe someone can shoot you directly to one or two that does have 50 POPs and chat standard).