Good morning all. I am very new to the forum, but have been reading a good deal of the threads trying to get up to speed. It seems like a good forum to be in and I hope to hang here and help out.

My question is, amazingly enough, about webhosting. While I am relatively new to web host shopping, I am not new to the web and running a website. My previous site Gamerforums.Net (http://www.gamerforums.net) was hosted by Hostway (http://www.hostway.com). I cant really say I ever had a problem with them. They were always prompt in helping me with technical issues that might crop up, and their response time to email questions was excellent.

Two things I did not appreciate however were the price for what you got. For $15 USD a month I got 200mb storage and only 6GB month transfer. But the biggest disapointment was when I was informed that because I was on a Linux server, they enforced a 10,000 file limit. Thats 10,000 files, regardless of size or location... you cant have more files then that. This was never mentioned on the package information. But we worked around it, they gave us some more and we called it even.

Anyway, I digress. I have since handed off that site to its origional designer and plan to move on to a new site, and am searching for a very affordable host that isnt a fly by night POS operation. I would like a great package at a reasonable price. I would like good service, but I dont require constant babysitting so I am not expecting to be in touch with support regularly if at all.

If any of you could offer suggestions about reliable hosts with great value packages that are generous with disk space as well as bandwith (and the standard 24/7FTP, MySQL, CGI etc etc) I would be most appreciative.

Its sooo hard to find a good base of hosts to even consider, I mean if you do a google search for Web Hosts you get about 8 BILLION hits.

Anyway... any help would be much appreciated.

BTW... the site I am designing is a hobby site with a community section (forum, probably Ikonboard) with some news and general info scattered throughout.

Ahh, almost forgot.

If you wouldn't mind... when you reccomend hosts if you could not only include their name/url, but also how long you have been with them etc.

Thanks again.

I do hope that this is the right location to ask for "Web Host" advice. If I have made a gaff and put this in the wrong section, please excuse my ignorance.

Well let me start out by saying remember one thing you get what you pay for. The package they sold you is not that bad for $15.00 a month if they gave great service and uptime. Now with that said you will find much cheaper offers here. But that does not mean they are better or worse, there is a value in service.

Second thing is not that many host will let you run Ikonboard it is a server resource hog. Consider Invision board or PHPBB2 or
any of the PHP MySQL boards instead.

Now I will get out of your thread and let others recomend some host to you. Good luck in your search.

I would definitely recommend HostRocket (http://www.hostrocket.com). I first registered with them October last year, and been with them ever since without any problems.

Firsly, regarding their plans. I, or for that matter anyone else, definitely cannot ask for more then what they are already offering. Just take a look:

350mb disk space
20GB disk transfer (they give bonuses occasionally too!)
Excellent server speed (2520 Mhz)
Unlimited pop3 accounts, aliases, subdomains, ftp accounts etc etc etc
10 SQL databases
SSL support

and lots more.. all for the price of -only- $9.95/mo (if you take the two-year package).

Support is great and prompt, and very friendly too. Most of my support requests ended up with having a friendly chat with the tech staff; what can be greater then having your problem fixed and a friendly greeting? ;)

I am nothing less then IMPRESSED by HostRocket. Do give them a try -- it's definitely worth it ;)

Oh did I mention that if you sign up today, you get the first two months of hosting off (completely FREE!). Details at http://www.hostrocket.com

p/s. I'm not affliated with HR in anyway, other then being a customer. I guess this sounds like an ad from one of their staff, but chill out, I'm not ;)

I appreciate the responses... Please keep them coming.

I agree that hostway is not a bad host... but my biggest gripe is what I consider the extremely low bandwith allotment for their base plans.

6gig of transfer per month is very very little. When our site started to get the least bit popular we were using 2/3 of that. I know and firmly believe that you get what you pay for, I am not looking to build a huge mega popular site. But I would like to have a little bit of growing room.

As I said, this is a pure hobby site that will include a mesg board (ikonboard with MySQL).

Thanks for your replies thus far. As I said I am very eager to find more and more hosts so that I can compare...

I have been looking seriously at POWWEB (http://www.powweb.com). The only big complaints I have seen from their forums etc is the result of exceeding the bandwith limitations (25gig) which I doubt would ever be an issue for my site. Thats over 4X the limit of my previous site/host.

I second the move from ikonboard mysql. The old cgi was more stable. I know, I used to have to repair them. The db's often get corrupted for no appearent reason. The files are not "owned" by you, so good luck and an email to tech support are what it takes to change or delete them.
Invision board, I have not yet tried, but I am a member on one that runs great. phpBB, or vB are also good choices.
Some where there is a thread called "How long have you been with your host?" I would read that if you are looking for long term hosting. Some people that have posted there, have been with their hosts for five years!
Watch out for HUGE transfer allowances, hosts that promise this, often limit the cgi processing time, or mysql connection times by less than some other hosts, so you may never get to use it all anyway. (unless you have an image archive site)
Do a search on the hosts name, once you have selected a couple, of them.
Paying more might increase your chances of getting on a less crowded server, but paying less will almost insure that you will be on a crowded one.
Good luck.

Originally posted by Andrax
I appreciate the responses... Please keep them coming.

I agree that hostway is not a bad host... but my biggest gripe is what I consider the extremely low bandwith allotment for their base plans.

6gig of transfer per month is very very little. When our site started to get the least bit popular we were using 2/3 of that. I know and firmly believe that you get what you pay for, I am not looking to build a huge mega popular site. But I would like to have a little bit of growing room.

As I said, this is a pure hobby site that will include a mesg board (ikonboard with MySQL).

Thanks for your replies thus far. As I said I am very eager to find more and more hosts so that I can compare...

I have been looking seriously at POWWEB (http://www.powweb.com). The only big complaints I have seen from their forums etc is the result of exceeding the bandwith limitations (25gig) which I doubt would ever be an issue for my site. Thats over 4X the limit of my previous site/host.

Do not guide by the prices, I don't consider the bandwidth that low 6 GB for $15, but I do consider unrealistic 25 GB for $8, if it look to good to be true, probably is it.

If you're site its important to you, then, I suggest to not look at the prices, specially in this forum, where you may get offers of 50 GB Bandwidth for $15 :P.