Hi,
I am looking for a host with features:
1.unlimited subdomains(I want to set up a redirect service for my users)
2.>6GB traffic
3.<$20 /month
4.personal CGI
5.fast worldwide


Thanks!

<<ADMIN EDIT>>

[Edited by Chicken on 02-10-2001 at 07:23 PM]

You may wanna check out http://www.hostrocket.com

HostRocket doesn't offer unlimited domains. And beware of "unlimited." It doesn't exist.

Hi,
Thanks all for your replies and emails.
I just want to set up a redirect service like ********.
I know that I can use a cgi script to do it simply, but I need enable 'Wildcard DNS'. The problem is I don't know which hosting service let me do it/or can help me do this.
I called a hosting before, they said they cannot do this because of technique reason(their servers are not able to do it, I am not sure now).
So, I would like your help to find me a hosting service that allows me enable'wildcard dns', I think that is the mean of 'unlimited subdomains', Am I right?

Thanks again!

Did you get my mail?
Are you going to host your clients sites on the new host or just the redirected domains and your site?

I got your email, I just want to redirect theire url to their sites on other servers.

Ofcourse you need a wildcard DNS to be enabled. All VDI hosts come with wildcard DNS though some hosts limit the number of subdomains.

May be you can ask them not to park the domains but to redirect them using a script.

IMHO, you might wanna try liquidweb.com : the 500 MB account (not the 100 MB one - that has no dedic IP). 30 GB transfer and unlimited subdomains and databases - Mysql, php4.

I'm also considering this plan on this host for my site. Any suggestions about liquidweb's quality of service and support? Their pre-sales support is good, but who hasn't good pre-sales support anyway?

I searched for liquidweb on this forum, but there were only some 3 or 4 threads, that too provide hardly any significant info. Somebody help.

Wing.

Forgot to say,
that 500 MB plan of liquidweb is USD. 25/mo. And no set up fee.

Thanks,
Can you tell me what's is VDI hosting? what's the difference between VDI and UNIX or WINNT/2k?

VDI is the name of company that owns a network operation center and leases servers to various hosting firms. Unix and WinXXX are operating systems. Two different things. Most of the hosts that lease from VDI will get a standard package to manage their servers such as a Cpanel3 and Web Host Manager.

So just thought this might be useful to you.

Most hosts co-locate or lease from Alabanza, VDI, etc. Alabanza will have a control panel with a lot of icons, etc. They don't support sub-domains (unless it's set up manually) and wild card subdomains as yet. You can easily identify that with the control panel. They all look similar.

Some have Cobalt RaQ servers. They too don't support subdomains.

And Marty told you what VDI is.

Hey, Marty is a She; Martie is a He. Right?

Wing.

Isn't HostRocket Alabanaza? I'm hosted with HR and subdomains are set up automatically through the control panel.

Hostrocket was with Alabanza. But they got off Alabanza and moved to VDI after Alabanza hiked their prices a few months back. Infact, some more Alabanza hosts moved to VDI then.

Hostrocket controlpanel may mislead one to think that they are on Alabanza because of the Alabanza style, but they are infact on VDI. Nice skin they have for the otherwise sober VDI cPanel.

Wing.

Originally posted by melia
HostRocket doesn't offer unlimited domains. And beware of "unlimited." It doesn't exist.

Melia,
I would like to clarify that unlimited subdomains is not like unlimited bandwidth or storage space. It is just a script that redirects you to somewhere else. And adding a DNS entry pointing to the same IP address. So, IT IS POSSIBLE. Only some hosts wont let you have it for business reasons.

Infact, you dont get true subdomains - MX records or separate IP address or virtual hosting account with these type of accounts. It's only a parked subdomain - on some directory of the main domain - if I can call it that.

Also, if you want to provide email redirection too, you will need a script to set up the email forwarding address when a user signs up.

But CJB allows you to set up email forwarding for different email ids in a subdomain you sign up with them. Can somebody provide me with that kind of script? Something that can add/edit MX records and point the MX record of a sub domain to your own server, and then provide email redirection for multiple user ids on that subdomain?

Also, a script to create/edit pure MX records so that the user may use some mail server like everyone.net, bigmailbox will also be fine.

So to accomplish this, we will need a script that combines the features of CJB with Zoneedit's CNAME, Web and Email forwards and MX records.

Hope this clears up. Also can someone suggest a script for the above requirements? GPL will be gr8

Wing.

I now know all VDI hosts can have unlimited subdomains.
I would like to find one.
But there are so many hosting services, how do I know which one is best/good and reliable? For big names, their plans are too expensive for me(less expensive plans don't usually don't have unlimited subdomains), for others, their price are much cheaper, but how can I trust them if I don't know them? Anybody shares your opinion?

I also saw some webhostings that have a reseller plan, As a reseller, you can buy the hosting plans at a lower price and sell them to your customers at a higher price and earn the difference.
I am now wondering, should they pay their fee owe to the original webhosing in advance(before they got any customer) or laterly(after their customers paid them, they then pay to hosting sites). Because there are big difference between those two procedurces, for the first, I have to take a risk and invest a lot of money before any profit, for the latter, I can almost be sure that I will not lose money.

Listening to your opinions!
Thanks!

As a reseller: Your customers signs up with you via the order procedure that you have created. When you notice that this has happened, you sign up and account with your provider and then hand the account over to your customer.

As for the unlimited subdomains. You didn`t want to go with me, so I would advice you to go with Liquidweb, they shouldn`t have any problems with you prefferences. They have quite good support. I`ve had nonotice of downtime so far. And 25$ shouldn`t be much considering what you want to use and the buisness you`ve allready set up.

"but how can I trust them if I don't know them? "
You should know your host within a month, and if you don`t like the host you`re going with then you can have your money back.

iambbq, think of the provider as the wholeseller, and the reseller as the retailer. The retailer gets merchandise from a wholesaler and sells it directly to the public. So is the reseller, you buy from the provider and sell retail to your customers. Of course, you get a discount on the accounts you purchase, and can set up your own retail price. The provider doesn't know who your customers are and should never contact them. You are the middle person in this arrangement.

iambbq,
You might wanna check out the reselling and start ups forum. You may find some useful info about reselling. But it's wise to venture into it only when you can have the expertise to provide most of the tech support yourself.

Also, search hotscripts.com for redirection. I found almost a dozen, but none of them provide any email forwarding / MX redirection capabilities. Somebody please post if you know any such script. I would say that the best one I found was http://www.go2cgi.com/forwardpro/ However, this too doesn't have email forwarding.

BTW, I'm now a WHT addict. Wow!

Wing.

Wing, a script-level email redirection as in forwarding based on a domain name can be done easily with procmail.

Wazeh,
Thank ya. Will try it one of these days.
BTW, I'm an addict now. Should I scream "WOW!" or should I scream "AAAW!"?

I also found a script that can do this: Vanity Mail
http://www.wncmarket.com/michael/scripts/
iambbb: You might wanna check this out.

Wing.