After spending the past three months (maybe more) I have done a lot of research and seen a lot of hosting companies & resellers on the net. How is one supposed to make up their mind. Well here are a few things that I looked for in my decisions.

#1 - Multiple Domain Hosting :cool:
#2 - Large Enough Bandwidth (15-30Gb)
***if bandwidth under 15 Gig make sure you look at the prices they charge per Gb over the amount***
#3 - The Basics (Perl/SSI/Emails/etc)
#4 - NO SETUP FEES!!!! (screw that)
#5 - A physical phone number where I can reach someone posted on the website somewhere (if need be)
#6 - Extras (PHP/ASP/mySQL/CF/etc) which I consider minor b/c most people don't know how to use them and most common people should not require these for a great site.

If you want a simple website and do not have the money for hosting per month and want free web hosting with a domain name registration check out Names4ever (affiliated with Aplus.net). You will pay more for registiration ($35) but you get free webhosting! Only drawback is you cannot use frames b/c there is a small miniscule ad banner at the top of each page however not a problem for most who don't wanna pay a lot and don't want to use other sites you cannot trust. They are great and I hosted some of my pages in the past and I host currentlyChristian Raves (http://www.christianraves.com) on their free site. It even includes free CGI and stats!!!

Now overall if you know what you are doing choosing web hosts is pretty smart. If you don't then you can get confused very easy with people fussing about bad hosts b/c some services they require higher end like Cold Fusion etc may not work and for the laymen that might be something you might never use.

I initially was going to sign up for gear host before i even came to this website and i looked over every post on here regarding gearhost or Ryan K. However, they were the only host that really fit what i needed at the price that I needed (plus I saw Ryan did make a large effort to make people happy). Well I signed up two days ago. It was very easy. I was given an IP address right away under my primary domain as well as a customized URL for easier access until the DNS entry could be changed over. Right away I went into the IControl. Now what I liked about this host vs. ehostpros.com (on which i host Air Chairs (http://www.airchairs.info)) was that I was able to simply choose subdirectories for my domain names instead of having a whole account created for each domain and then having to choose how much i wanted to allot etc. Now about 24 hrs later my DNS had changed over and I was able to access all my sites without any problems. I have been given my SSL certificate information and things are going smoothly.

:spam:

My only complaints thus far is that there isn't nearly as much support information as I have found on ehostpros.com I know what i'm doing so that makes it easier but sometimes. Now I have yet to install CGI scripts or run PHP/ASP/CF/mySQL/etc so I cannot as of yet comment on these aspect. If you have considered gearhost you can try out their control panel. There is a DEMO button that you can push which I did not see until after I had signed up. Hearing all that stuff about how bad the IControl was from this board I wanted to try it out before signing up. They apparently have some improvements to be made this month but if you are a layman and do not use the high end stuff I don't think you will be hurting. I cannot view how much bandwidth I have used. I have 30gigs which is a lot to use up. I only used 3gigs on a site I was getting 1200 visits per day. Maybe someone knows how to find this out. They say they will be adding live stats soon.

So overall I say gearhost has been pretty good (so far) if I had to pick a second choice I'd go with ehostpros.com and thirdly aplus.net everything else looks sketchy or is too overpriced.

I will keep you updated :dgrin:

Thanks for the post Clemzonguy, much appreciated to hear your experience.

I too have much esperience in exploring web hosts, and I would be happy to help anyone, just drop me a line, contact details are in my profile and sig.

One quick point, about the transfer. Most websites do not need anywhere near 15 GB. A basic website with HTML, graphics, some jacascript etc and around a few thousand visitors per month probably won't even run you over 1GB. If you have larger files for download, or a graphics intense site that is a little bit different. One way that you can figure this out for yourself, is find out the total size of your entire website, and then multiply it by the number of visitors you think you will have per month. This will give you a good estimate of the amount of transfer you need.

Hope this help somebody.
Regards.

I feel the same way, and about the Bandwidth, they will be adding that feature into iControl v2 this coming week. Which will be a very very good feature to have.

I use perl, php, and mysql on my site and it all works 100%.
They have the perl DBM to allow perl to connect to Mysql which I needed. Its all very fast for a shared server too.
A quick note for perl, you dont need the #!perl or #!path to perl for gearhost servers; that would be a good support thing to have on the website.

The support area for Gearhost is alright, they do claim they will be adding to this, so hopefully it will be better, I personally dont need that information but some people do.

I can't fully rate support on gearhost, I have used the support ticket system, and I usually got a reply in about 24-36 hours, but you have to take into consideration the importance(mine wasnt important) and if you need immediate assistance, thats what the TOLL free number is for.

I also like how they emailed me to notify me of when my webserver had a disk failure and then when it came back online, very professional, also considering it was at 4am means that they do have tech people mointoring the servers.

The only thing I am lacking that I really need is a way to backup my mysql database whcih is around 6mb. The feature on the forum to back it up, times out because of the limit of cgi execution time.

From the Gearhost tech:
>>
This is because we limit the amount of time a Perl application can run, for now but we are also creating an online way of backing up your database so that you don't have this type of problem
<<

I'm not sure on the time that will take, hopefully it will be soon.

But all in all, I am happy with this service, the uptime is really good and the speed is almost always excellent.


Well thats all I gotta say about that, keep up the good work ryan :)

I would also like to add about the setup fees...

Don't let a setup fee scare you away, evaluate it.
Many hosts have a very good reason for charging a setup fee. Lots of people that are concerned about a small additional setup fee are the customers that will buy a hosting account, create a problem for the host by abusing their services, and then leave, often with unpaid bills. A host that charges a small setup fee will filter out a lot of these "free-loaders" and webhosting abusers. This will likely ensure that you are dealing with a more stable business, because they will not be dealing with outsanding accounts, or abuse on their servers.

Another reason for setup fees... Often a host is not just charging you to setup your account. Sometimes there are other things involved, such as setting up different services for you, or a control panel. Some control panels require a per-user payment, you may be paying for this. Would you rather they put that cost onto your monthly price? Many hosts will charge a setup fee to help them make money while lowering the monthly fee so that you pay less in the long run.

Despite what I have said, there are many hosts out there that just charge a setup fee because they can, or because they want to. If they want you to pay $50 to setup a wesite that you are paying $7.95 a month for, I would say run away from that host. If it is a moderate fee, like less than the cost of 2 months hosting, then I would recommend looking into it further before abondoning it.

Well maybe what companies should do is apply the setup fee to the person's account (if they choose to have one) after the second month. So basically they would be paying two months in advance. Maybe some do this already.

I'd also like to tell people this tidbit of info. Aplus.net offers a new Virtual Private Server (VPN) for $35 complete with DNS, multiple domains, etc. They only offer 5Gb bandwidth though. However, this was way too expensive when I saw what I got elsewhere with other multiple domain hosts. But if you need a dedicated server solution maybe this would help out. I'm paying $14.95 and getting most of these options and the extras even my own IP!

Now what I do not like is this whole DNS server stuff b/c I was going to try hosting off my cable line and when I tried entering my IP address in it wouldn't seem to take it. So my question is why should you have to pay for another DNS server to direct you to an IP when you should just be able to enter it on the DNS server that you registered your domain with. I do realize some people do support URL forwarding even for free. Are people just out for ways to make a buck or what. This system seems flawed to me. So say you sign up for that MyDynDns.org or whatever you pay like 30 per name. That's two months of hosting that I'm paying now when I am receiving that same service free for as many names as i'd like. Plus you would have to take TWO hops one to your initial registrar then to the new DNS then to your website instead of one hop.

Now one thing i want to add about gearhost they offer you a shared SSL certificate. You can pay up to $125/year on your own certificate or even half that for a shared one. While I have no experience in using this yet I figured i would point this out to anyone interested in having a secure site. Although really what is secure anymore these days?

SSL works quite nicely on gearhost I might add, props to ryan
:D

And ryan just a quick question but is anything going to be added to iControl, (april 02) today? Because I thought you said that two more modules would be installed the previous night... Just curious :)

Billabong2k2,

The two modules are installed and a few more coming tonight as well. While the whole upgrade process does take all of this week we are releasing them in a steady pattern. The modules, although installed are hidden from clients right now, pending some final QA but their in iControl just hidden a bit ;). The new billing info section is a new one as it will contain online CC change, past invoices, print invoices, billing details, etc. All that groovy stuff that either makes you cringe or gives you the goose bumps :rolleyes:.

After that it's bandwidth management, new prices/plans, well you get the point since your a customer you got the complete list, etc.

ok thanks, I appreciate you taking the time to answer my questions, especially since this site has nothing to do with gearhost. I appreciate it ;)

THANKS!

I have been with GH for about 2 months, and so far they are GREAT! Yes, I desperatly need the stats, cause I MUST keep an eye on my bandwidth, but its worth the wait. The speed is great, the support is pretty good also. One of my tickets today was answered in 3 minutes!!! I love Gearhost so far...great job Ryan!


p.s. EVERYONE STAY AWAY FROM ALETIA!!! TRUST ME!!!

Originally posted by shibby
... I desperatly need the stats ...

Don't worry shibby there just around the corner and closer ;).

Yes, I have to say, my tickets were answered within minutes to half an hour, the past couple of days too. Even the one I wrote just to tell them that I was now a happy camper with the SSL - and it is SO easy to use too! I really like not having to upload files to a separate server. :)

I came soooooo close to switching last week. I find that patience just isn't my virtue anymore as I get older, but I am glad I waited it out. Things are definitely looking up.

Speaking of SSL. Can anyone recommend a free shopping cart program that I could use that is customizable and doesn't suck. I have looked through all of the free cgi perl sites and came away with nothing useful or easy to setup. One option I'd like is to be able to simply check the credit cards using algorithms (which I can already do) for validity or simply store them securely and do this on my own time when I process the orders. Now finding a host is easy but can anyone give me advice in the ecommerce category, especially when I do not plan to be doing high volumes of sales. I know already I can spend $500 easy per year or per month :rolleyes: on this but there has to be a better way for small time venders who only occasionally sell things when they get a visitor. I have a paypal account but no one bothers to sign up for an account (even when $20 free is offered) therefore you loose a customer when so very few might come your way or make the decision to buy. I'm simply looking for an affordable or not cost plug-in solution that I could use on all of my sites (plural) and I have been hitting blank walls. Someone help me out.

oscommerce.com

or phpshop.org

or vpasp.com on NT/2k

There is a unix version of VPASP too.


I purchased the windows version of VPASP and it is very easy to use and is feature rich for the low price. No, it's not free but the price is nominal for the program you get...plus a year's worth of free upgrades.

You can try their demo at www.vpasp.com. Their tech support is excellent and they also have a forum.

Your Virtual Store is also a good product with great tech support. It is built on VPASP but has a lot of great extras. You can check it out at www.rocksalt.com.au

I just remembered something ... weren't the linux plans from GearHost supposed to be released on the 1st? That's what I was told by Ryan and support.

It'll be here soon, thats what the email said, they are doing all the iControl upgrades and all that, then new prices and a whole bunch of new stuff.. ;)

Well I finally found what I thought was a great CGI shoping cart script that I could set up with no problem. PDEstore (http://www.smart-choices.org/docs/pdestore.html). Anyways tried installing it on three hosts and none of them would take it. The reason why? Sendmail was disabled on one, apparently misconfigured on another or disabled totally, and on gearhost well it's an NT SERVER so that means you cannot use sendmail at all and I do not believe they have sendmailNT installed. So back to the drawing board it looks like. This seems to greatly cripple the functionality of most ecommerce/shopping cart programs as well as some of my own cgi scripts which allow for autoreplies and automation that I require. Am I just screwed or are there workarounds??? :confused:

clemzonguy,
I would suggest starting a new thread in the Technical & Security issues forum. Not many would be looking in the gearhost thread for this problem. I think you will have better chances in that forum.

Originally posted by shibby
...I desperatly need the stats...

There are available now for your personal enjoyment ;) login to iControl to see the new module.

I got alllll the way to the credit card page on signing up with GearHost, but in reading the Acceptable Use policy, they don't allow files to be linked to from other sites - which is a big deal for me as I do posting and what not online. Is this a common policy amongst the hosts? I'm currently using XO, but they're a lot more expensive...

TIA,
Bryan

Sounds like a way of limiting usage of Data Transfer. This is common amongst Free Hosters, but not with a paid-for account. Normally, when you pay for "X" amount of Data Transfer what you do with it is up to you -- within the Terms of Service of course.

Actually what your referring to is a bit different. What we mean is that you can't just signup with GearHost and setup a forum while your main website resides on another server, it's taking advantage of the large bandwidth which we don't allow. Linking is perfectly fine but your whole account (domain, files, etc) needs to stay all on our server, does that help ;)?

What we mean is that you can't just signup with GearHost and setup a forum while your main website resides on another server
That also sounds like a limitation, only now it is with Services. As long as someone follows your TOS, what would it matter what they are using the account for? Not being familiar with your TOS, do have what you said, as a requirement for Hosting? That would make it easier for others to undstand this limitation of services.

I was also surprised by the limit of not allowing you to link to a forum from another site. This seems like the type of thing someone would want to be able to do in order to balance bandwidth usage to stay within limits. Even beyond a forum I could imagine setting up a site but linking in graphics from a second site, again with an eye to balancing the load. Is this type of limitation common among other webhosting services? I can see if it is a free hosting service where they are making money by showing ads each time someone pulls a page, but instead of pulling up html pages the site is only used for storing graphics files, but why would a paid provider care? If someone else was linking to my graphics and thereby utilizing my bandwidth I might not be happy, but that is not necessarily something I would encourage (in fact I know there are steps that people take to stop such access). Again, why should the hosting provider want to prevent me from deliberately linking into my own site from another site?

J. Kenneth Riviere

Have you looked at the pricing? It's because if you paying very little just to be a bandwidth user, which is fine, but it doesn't make sense. The account can use as much bandwidth as they like but if the account is just used as a means to an end it isn't what were here for. Our plans are for users who, regardless the amount of bandwidth, host their whole site with us, not just coming in for the bandwidth because their other host charges them $60 for the amount of bandwidth we give for $5. See my point?

I think we're getting all a little confused here ;). You are allowed to have links by all means! The problem is this, you can't have an account that is just a portion of your whole site and your main account (website content) hosted somewhere else and tied together by a link. See what I mean? Take for instance this scenario:

You host with SomeHost.Com (your website) but you are reaching your bandwidth limit every month because of your forum so you open an account with GearHost for the SOLE purpose of hosting your forum and then put a link on your website (hosted with SomeHome.Com) to point to your forum (located at GearHost). This is what I'm saying is wrong. Now if you want to host your whole site (website AND forum), that's cool.

Hope that made better sense.

I think I understand exactly what you're saying your policy is. What I don't understand is why you have that policy. Suppose I have a site registered as mysite.com at another host and register myforumsite.com and host it with you. I primarily promote mysite.com and try to get it listed in the search engines, and one of the features of mysite.com is a link to myforumsite.com on your service. In fact, people could go directly to myforumsite.com without paying any attention to mysite.com, but they are more likely to hear about it via mysite.com because that is what I am intentionally promoting. What difference does it make to you what drives this traffic? I don't generally include references to who is hosting my web site (why should I have to update such references if I decide to move my site to another hosting service, besides I'm paying for the service and that price was not negotiated based on advertising my hosting service on my web site), so most people wouldn't be able to tell who was hosting which sites, though they might notice the change in url as they shift between the main site and the forum. So how does it help you if you refuse to sell services to me to host myforumsite.com? How does it hurt you if I set up mysite.com elsewhere and host myforumsite.com with you? I just don't see the business sense in it.

Maybe this is just an indication of my ignorance about the web hosting business. I've helped with some web sites but I guess I'm missing part of how a web hosting service works that this would matter to you.

-J. Kenneth Riviere

How you chose to run your business, Ryan, is your prerogative. I would suggest, though, for the sake of clearing up any confusion before-hand, you include a specific definition in your TOS, as to what is and is not, allowed. After all, a TOS is to give clear, precise explainations for this type of thing.

This would help to prevent some mis-understandings before they have a chance to grow. Just a thought. :)