I have been scouring this board for the past few days reading everything I can before posting the same question as everyone else. However, I think I am going to ask something that has probably been asked already :rolleyes:

Anyway, I have a few sites, mine and a few small client sites. The total bandwidth is about 6-7/month (hardly anything for 5 sites). However, I have developed a PHP/MySQL program and plan on hosting the script for those who don't have a site that can adequately host the script (i.e. doesn't have PHP/MySQL).

I am just a college student not looking to start a web hosting company or anything, just a place to host my site and some clients. Then, depending on how well this program does, hosting all those sites. I don't have any experience running a server (hence why I am asking for help here) so support/monitoring would be nice. I am pretty sure I could handle upgrades for PHP or Apache and stuff like that though.

What I have found so far:

alphaomegahosting - https://www.alphaomegahosting.com/cphost.html (not dedicated server, but has what I will need I believe)

$30/mo, no setup
3000MB
50GB
CPanel
30 Databases
50 domains

Nocster - http://www.nocster.net/closeout.shtml (The 2nd one)

$89/mo, $99 setup (+$20 for CPanel)

RackShack - http://www.rackshack.net/flagshipmain.asp (I know of their support, or lack there of, reputation)

$99/mo, $99 setup for Ensim


After typing this, I have convinced myself to lean towards the alphaomegahosting option. The program I developed I made it so you could install multiple instances into the same database, so the limit on databases wouldn't be all that bad (if I even got that high). Most everything on the sites I have use PHP, so a good processor would be a nice bonus.

Anyway, I am just stuck and can't make a decision as to which way to go. ANY help in this decision making process (which, of course, I didn't think would be all that difficult when I first started) would be much appreciated :)

Really there is nothing wrong with rackshack. Most (note i say most, not all) of the complaints are from people new to servers, that need lots of help, rackshack does not offer this, because the servers are unmanaged. If you know some stuff about running a server, then getting one through rackshack should be fine, if you are not that confident with your abilities, then use one of those other two options. Another thing for the server front is
www.eservers.biz they seem to go out of their way to help people, (even though they are unmanaged as well) and people seem to be posting good reviews about them.

Agree with PHP50, if you know enough stuff, you don't do silly stuff (like firewall yourself, delete config files need restore...) you could get all the help from the boards (here and forum.rackshack.net).