I'm splitting my sites off from a VPS, some going to a cheapo dedicated where we can do some playing ..

The rest probably on a quality reseller account?

About 10 G disk space (room for growth)
At least 30 g bandwidth (50 preferred .. starting a new forum)

I need SSH, a dozen small databases, phpmyadmin, CPanel and last but not least ..

Swish-E on the server .. 10 sites use it for site search.

I'm not reselling .. these are all my own sites.

$? for IP addresses?

And did you do some research to make a short-list of potential hosts?

And did you do some research to make a short-list of potential hosts?
No.:rolleyes:

I'm splitting my sites off from a VPS, some going to a cheapo dedicated where we can do some playing ..

The rest probably on a quality reseller account?

About 10 G disk space (room for growth)
At least 30 g bandwidth (50 preferred .. starting a new forum)

I need SSH, a dozen small databases, phpmyadmin, CPanel and last but not least ..

Swish-E on the server .. 10 sites use it for site search.

I'm not reselling .. these are all my own sites.

$? for IP addresses?

Requirements look good in terms of webspace/bandwidth.. You may want to state your budget too ;)

Your biggest obstacle is going to be the Swish-E. Everything else looks reasonable but you're going to need to inquire at every potential host on support for Swish-E and if not is there any possibility for it to be installed (My knowledge is not great on Swish-E so I'm not sure about it in a shared environment)

As u didn' t specify where ur websites r located (US, Canda, UK ...) i can only point u to one of my current providers ... www.fastnext.com (NJ, USA).

Altough, as mentioned above, can't say anything about the Swish-E thingie ...

Requirements look good in terms of webspace/bandwidth.. You may want to state your budget too ;)
I always figure that if I set out my requirements properly, the price will be appropriate. Although price is always a factor, I'm looking more at the quality of host than the last $5.

Your biggest obstacle is going to be the Swish-E. Everything else looks reasonable but you're going to need to inquire at every potential host on support for Swish-E and if not is there any possibility for it to be installed (My knowledge is not great on Swish-E so I'm not sure about it in a shared environment)
It's pretty common for hosts to have Swish-E on a server. Then every site on the server can use it. It's an excellent CGI site search tool. Very fast and very efficient.

Well I'm looking at our machines and I can't find a single one with it installed and we've never had a single request for it either. Of course looking into it more looks to be an easy install. I would still suggest inquiring any potential host about it being installed.

I think your requirements are very reasonable and you should have no problems finding a quality host. Do some searches on these forums and you'll soon have a short list of hosts.

Well I'm looking at our machines and I can't find a single one with it installed and we've never had a single request for it either. Of course looking into it more looks to be an easy install. I would still suggest inquiring any potential host about it being installed.
I'm pretty sure when I inquired about 1 year ago that Pair has it on their shared servers. IMO, it's a no-brainer for anyone running shared hosting.

I think your requirements are very reasonable and you should have no problems finding a quality host. Do some searches on these forums and you'll soon have a short list of hosts.
Most of the searching I have done here has been inconclusive. And I tend not to like doing my own shortlists as discussion can often be less than dynamic.

It's quite easy to search for specs, but only longer-term user experience by knowledgable users finds quality. What sort of evaluative decision do you make when you find 3 good reviews and one (apparently honest) bad one?

But all these helpful posts aside, this discussion seems to be more about what I should be doing or expecting rather than quality discussions about quality host recommendations.

old_expat (http://www.webhostingtalk.com/member.php?u=45991)

As you have mentioned that you don't want to resell the services and wants to host your personal site .. then i suggest you try to find some good host company which provide multiple domain under one account .. because you don't need white labelling or private name server as you are not reselling the services

my suggestion is hostgator.com , dreamhost.com, lunarpages.com etc ..

You can find plenty of good host with unlimited domain option under one control panel.

I'm second to support the idea of a shared plan, as you aren't going to resell. I do believe you'll have to buy Swish-E and then get it installed.

old_expat (http://www.webhostingtalk.com/member.php?u=45991)

As you have mentioned that you don't want to resell the services and wants to host your personal site .. then i suggest you try to find some good host company which provide multiple domain under one account .. because you don't need white labelling or private name server as you are not reselling the services

my suggestion is hostgator.com , dreamhost.com, lunarpages.com etc ..

You can find plenty of good host with unlimited domain option under one control panel.
kjaawaid and lorem ipsum,

I seem to be going in circles. Whenever I mention that I have 30 websites, people start recommending "reseller" .. which is why I'm looking for a hosting company in this forum.

I actually like the idea of being able to set up my own accounts .. which I presently do on my VPS. I think a reseller panel lets me do the same.

The last shared host I had started charging me a fee to set up a new site, which is why I moved .. (I was already paying more than my VPS costs me now).

About SWISH-E .. it's open source / free.

Hi old_expat,

I seem to be going in circles. Whenever I mention that I have 30 websites, people start recommending "reseller" .. which is why I'm looking for a hosting company in this forum.

Well, which solution you actually choose (shared, reseller, VPS, Dedicated) should have very little to do with the number of domains you are hosting.

- do you require separate control panels for the domains or will a multiple domain package suffice (and not cpanels addon domains, but, actual multiple domains), then a big shared package may suffice
- if you want true multiple domains and dont mind or actually require multiple control panels for each, you can look at a reseller account
- depending on the sites resource requirements, your needs will somewhat self qualify themselves. What sort of VPS are you on and how many resources are you using?
- SWISH-E is not installed on alot of shared servers because the demand is not high for it. I think we have it installed on 1 server because a client asked for it about a year ago. Chances are, you will need to request this to be installed no matter where you end up, but, most hosts, short of the very large ones, would probably not have an issue installing it.

kjaawaid and lorem ipsum,

I seem to be going in circles. Whenever I mention that I have 30 websites, people start recommending "reseller" .. which is why I'm looking for a hosting company in this forum.

Again reseller account is require to resell the services and you are not planing to do that, so its useless to buy reseller account

I actually like the idea of being able to set up my own accounts .. which I presently do on my VPS. I think a reseller panel lets me do the same.

You can create your own account through control panel .. i don't know which host you are using but adding a domain automatically is now an industry standard and there are no charges for doing this.

And also iit will be easy for you to use one control panel to manage all domains

However decision is your.

Most of the searching I have done here has been inconclusive. And I tend not to like doing my own shortlists as discussion can often be less than dynamic.

It's quite easy to search for specs, but only longer-term user experience by knowledgable users finds quality. What sort of evaluative decision do you make when you find 3 good reviews and one (apparently honest) bad one?

old_expat,

Points noted but unfortunately you have to keep in mind that things change over time. A host that used to be in the top 10 of most people's list a year ago can sink faster then the titanic due to various reasons (mostly being sold/managed by new people).

Having said that you may want to check out thewhir.com, HostReview, tophosts.com, webhostmagazine and whreviews.com (which while not totally current is one of the better resources out there). I used to check out premium20.com but that's been unavailable for a bit.

If you want to see a list of recommendations I try to keep a list of what I consider "top" reseller hosts for under $25/mo. Of course this is not a complete list and is based on my own experience with most of these and/or reviews and research. Also does not include some premium host like HTTPme and Cartika (which have excellent reps, but thats another list I'm working on).

And yes I have had accounts with most of these. I normally get accounts with all the hosts that I trying out and normally keep at least two accounts on different hosts active. Don't ask I just like to play around. I also install linux distro's to test like some people change underwear.

Sonet7
Dotable
Bluewho
Hostgator
Knownhost
Vortech
Downtownhost
Hostnine
Innohosting
ResellerZoom
Budget Reseller
Dathorn

Hosts that are on my plate to try out in the next few months are Hostingmatters, Idologic, Hostmysite, ImHosted and Jodohost. All of these seem to have good reps.

But like anything do your own research, get a few names and start sending e-mails, post on their forums and if you can get an account or two before you have to cut over so you can play around and see actual performance.

Hi old_expat,


Well, which solution you actually choose (shared, reseller, VPS, Dedicated) should have very little to do with the number of domains you are hosting.
Hi Chartika,

I always felt that way, but have run into several limiting to 10 domains. That would mean (for me) to have 3 accounts .. which may not actually be a bad thing, but might be confusing around billing time.

One thing I have to consider with any hosting company is that they can/will set up the accounts with *my* selected username .. otherwise I have to update every PHP query on every site. While that can be done, it is not a chore I relish.

- do you require separate control panels for the domains or will a multiple domain package suffice (and not cpanels addon domains, but, actual multiple domains), then a big shared package may suffice
I wish I could answer that accurately. I have never used a '1 control panel for all' setup, so I don't know how it works.

I have a number of databases, but I think that doesn't matter.

I have cron jobs set up on most domains (one for search and on some sites, for removing dated records in a database)


- if you want true multiple domains and dont mind or actually require multiple control panels for each, you can look at a reseller account
- depending on the sites resource requirements, your needs will somewhat self qualify themselves. What sort of VPS are you on and how many resources are you using?
Right now I'm on a VPS with 256 mb guaranteed RAM, 20 g storage and 30 g bandwidth. I'm up close to the top on resources, but mostly worry that the RAM limitation is slowing my page loads.

Several sites query one of a number of mysql database .. but mainly just one .. for now.:)

Two sites are 'map' sites and have fairly large (even though optimized) images .. on the order of 40 - 90 kb. One of sites gets a lot of traffic (for me) at 1,400 - 1,600 uniques per day .. 5,000 - 7,000 pages .. all serving 50 - 100k.


- SWISH-E is not installed on alot of shared servers because the demand is not high for it. I think we have it installed on 1 server because a client asked for it about a year ago. Chances are, you will need to request this to be installed no matter where you end up, but, most hosts, short of the very large ones, would probably not have an issue installing it.
I don't mind paying a reasonable fee to have it installed. My VPS charged me $10.

I think you are right about people not knowing about it. But it is great .. and free .. I have an info website with 700 pages of text content. Swish search gets used a lot. Searches take fractions of seconds and the file that holds everything is only about 700K.

I have another review site .. 1200+ pages. The file size for that one is 1.6 m.

Hi kjawaid,

You can create your own account through control panel .. i don't know which host you are using but adding a domain automatically is now an industry standard and there are no charges for doing this.
Right now I add accounts via the WHM. I haven't seen how to add them with a CP. At my old host (a 1 man show), I'm pretty sure he added them in WHM .. but one day he billed me for adding several domains .. I believe it was $5 each. That's when I started looking.



And also iit will be easy for you to use one control panel to manage all domains
So long as I can set up everything with 1 CP, all the better. I actually don't use the CP too much. Stats, error logs, email forwarders, CRON jobs .. occasionally password protecting a directory, occasionally using the file manager to delete a directory, making site backups, IP deny, parking domains, .. that sort of stuff.

I look at my bandwidth and disk usage on the WHM

Hi Nnyan,

First, thanks so much for giving me this list. I will check out these folks.

old_expat,

Points noted but unfortunately you have to keep in mind that things change over time. A host that used to be in the top 10 of most people's list a year ago can sink faster then the titanic due to various reasons (mostly being sold/managed by new people).
Yes, the hosting business seems pretty volitile. Whenever I see a newbie asking "How do I get into the hosting business," I shudder.:)

Having said that you may want to check out thewhir.com, HostReview, tophosts.com, webhostmagazine and whreviews.com (which while not totally current is one of the better resources out there). I used to check out premium20.com but that's been unavailable for a bit.

Thanks for those references. I will go through them. Although I want to move in a timely manner, I'm not in a great rush.

If you want to see a list of recommendations I try to keep a list of what I consider "top" reseller hosts for under $25/mo. Of course this is not a complete list and is based on my own experience with most of these and/or reviews and research. Also does not include some premium host like HTTPme and Cartika (which have excellent reps, but thats another list I'm working on).

And yes I have had accounts with most of these. I normally get accounts with all the hosts that I trying out and normally keep at least two accounts on different hosts active. Don't ask I just like to play around. I also install linux distro's to test like some people change underwear.

Sonet7
Dotable
Bluewho
Hostgator
Knownhost
Vortech
Downtownhost
Hostnine
Innohosting
ResellerZoom
Budget Reseller
Dathorn

Hosts that are on my plate to try out in the next few months are Hostingmatters, Idologic, Hostmysite, ImHosted and Jodohost. All of these seem to have good reps.

This is great. Thanks again.

But like anything do your own research, get a few names and start sending e-mails, post on their forums and if you can get an account or two before you have to cut over so you can play around and see actual performance.

Yes, I think I may be doing some research in just that manner .. so long as I don't run into a hefty setup charge.

In going through some of the recommendations I've come across in these forums, one thing pops out .. poor service to inquiries.

I realize that this buisness is mostly run by scripts and not people, but in 2 instances when trying to find out about swish-e availability, I hade to open a support ticket.

-In one instance, I got an email with my question and a link to where I could find the ticket. All I got from that link was a "nothing here" notice.

When something like that happens the first time, I figure the chances are pretty good that there is a serious organizational problem.

-For one host, who advertises on WHT, the only link to getting info was again .. to open a support ticket. But when I tried to open a support ticket, I needed a username and password before I could get to the form.

For me, that's a red flag.

which companies websites you visited .. most of the companies provide pre-sales live chat option

Right now I'm on a VPS with 256 mb guaranteed RAM, 20 g storage and 30 g bandwidth. I'm up close to the top on resources, but mostly worry that the RAM limitation is slowing my page loads.

Hello old_expat,

With that sort of utilization, you really only have so many options. I do not believe a typical shared hosting account would accomodate you. Even those most generous with server resources may not appreciate 1 user utilizing 256-500MB of RAM on a consistent basis - at least not without paying a significant portion each month - effectively, you are into a semi-dedicated situation.

I would probably suggest you consider 1 of 3 options:

1) getting a larger VPS
2) getting a reseller account with a good clustered provider where you can spread those accounts across multiple web/DB servers and spread that load out
3) go for a low end managed dedicated server

with 30 domains and already utilizing 30 GB of disk space and requiring a RAM upgrade from your current dedicated 256 MB - I would start considering a more dedicated solution. Of course your budget may not accomodate that, so, it is probably best to just upgrade your VPS.

Not sure this is what you wanted to hear, but, I certainly hope this helps...

which companies websites you visited .. most of the companies provide pre-sales live chat option
The chat is indeed live .. well, in 3 out of 4 cases where I tried .. but the information was not. In each case, the live chat person asked me to email sales.

In one case, an email to sales resulted in a return email with a link to my ticket .. which .. yep, you guessed it .. I needed a username and password to access.

I wonder if they ever try out their own contact system to see if a non-member can actually use it.

Hello Chakrita,

Hello old_expat,

With that sort of utilization, you really only have so many options. I do not believe a typical shared hosting account would accomodate you. Even those most generous with server resources may not appreciate 1 user utilizing 256-500MB of RAM on a consistent basis - at least not without paying a significant portion each month - effectively, you are into a semi-dedicated situation.

I would probably suggest you consider 1 of 3 options:

1) getting a larger VPS
2) getting a reseller account with a good clustered provider where you can spread those accounts across multiple web/DB servers and spread that load out
3) go for a low end managed dedicated server

with 30 domains and already utilizing 30 GB of disk space and requiring a RAM upgrade from your current dedicated 256 MB - I would start considering a more dedicated solution. Of course your budget may not accomodate that, so, it is probably best to just upgrade your VPS.

Not sure this is what you wanted to hear, but, I certainly hope this helps...
I am surely headed for a dedicated server, but hoped to postpone that chore long enough to allow me to learn more about managing a server,

With my type of operation (very little email and few 3rd party scripts), I don't need the same type management as a hosting company / reseller does. I don't need kernel upgrades, or if I do, I would hire a service company to do them.

In another thread I stated my intention of adding a low-budget server (also mentioned in my OP) with lightttp and Webmin .. hire it set up and learn to 'manage' it myself.

I was hoping to have a smooth transition, but smooth in this industry seems to equal $$$$$.

So it looks like I have finished yet another spiral.;)

I do thank you very much for your insight and advice.

The chat is indeed live .. well, in 3 out of 4 cases where I tried .. but the information was not. In each case, the live chat person asked me to email sales.

In one case, an email to sales resulted in a return email with a link to my ticket .. which .. yep, you guessed it .. I needed a username and password to access.

I wonder if they ever try out their own contact system to see if a non-member can actually use it.

But i have my personal experince with hostgator, powweb, dreamhost .. there sales staff is always online .. and if the sales is not online of some company you can always ask Techinical staff about the services you just have to mention that you are looking for pre-sales Q/A

I doubt any one will not answer you.

Again the decision is yours ... ;)

Again reseller account is require to resell the services and you are not planing to do that, so its useless to buy reseller account

I don't think it's true you may use your reseller acoount for any purposes, so you may either resell it, host your own sites or just give away for free.

In one case, an email to sales resulted in a return email with a link to my ticket .. which .. yep, you guessed it .. I needed a username and password to access.No username and password were provided in the automated reply that you received?

expat,

Do you mind sharing which hosts had what problems? Many hosts check these forums they may want to know about this issue.

I think you should look for a good deal with a VPS host with a good rep or as Cartika said find someone with clustered services.

If you're looking for some transition time have you checked out Knownhost, Tectonic or FutureHosting? These offer pretty reasonable VPS accounts and have a good rep (Its been years since I last used a VPS so I don't know too much about VPS hosts, you may want to check out the VPS forum on WHT).

No username and password were provided in the automated reply that you received?
No. The email had a copy of my question, and a link to the ticket, but no way to look at it.