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  1. #1

    Looking for fast host

    I'm looking for somewhere to host my site - for it to work properly, it's important that it can delivery images to my visitors quickly - it's something along the lines of Google Maps and the zoom/scroll illusion is lost if it takes too long to grab the next set of images.

    Disk space isn't really an issue - a few dozen megs is probably all I need.

    Any recommendations or should I be looking at a VPS or my own server?

    Even with a VPS or server, I still have to be careful about chosing a host who's upstream bandwidth is above average don't I?

    Thanks in advance.

    --Speedy

  2. #2
    My opinion it that most people are looking for the fast hosts. If you are only going to be using a few dozen mb you should be able to go with a shared hosting account. I would think at the most you would need a resellers account, but i don't think that should be an issue.

    You best bet is to contact a few web hosting providers and ask them for an ip on the server and ping the ip. You also want to take into consideration the type of servers they are running, along with cpu's and memory. So when you contact them, get that info too.

  3. #3
    That sounds like good advice - thank you.

    Anyone know if there is there a speed test application somewhere - something like the DSL reports speed test for DSL - that can estimate the download bandwidth a host is able to deliver?

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Jul 2005
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    Hi speedwell,

    Don't know of a test like that off-hand... but I do know a lot of hosts have listed themselves at hostingspeeds.com where you can find a pageload test comparison of many hosts and results from various parts of the world. They use a 100 Kb test file that loads from the company's website. It may not be the most accurate, and there are occasionally various network trouble spots in certain sections of the world... but it could give you an idea of some faster hosts.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Aug 2004
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    Earth
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    8,154
    The best way to find out is to ping an IP
    Try http://www.hostpulse.com/hosting/net.../speedtest.asp

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Sep 2005
    Location
    Essex, England
    Posts
    548
    Speed is relative to geographical location.
    You may do well to get servers in different countries, Canada and the US are well connected, but a European user would notice a lag, represented by a high ping time.

  7. #7
    Thanks for the information everyone.

    I've noticed that my current (budget host) has a much lower ping time that the place I'm currently hosting the images (25ms vs 90ms) but performs much worse when transferring images.

    Good point about geographic location - I was showing someone in Europe and it was mostly unusuable for them. If it ever takes off, I'll look at proxying (is that the right word) at various locations.

    Cheers all.

    Speedy.

  8. #8
    Hostingspeeds.com offers a wealth of information on the speeds of over 500 web hosts. It is a pretty great resource, and probably worth checking out in your case. (FYI- BeTheHost is currently ranked as the fastest.)

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Aug 2004
    Location
    Southern NYS
    Posts
    535
    You could always try shared hosting and move to a VPS or dedicated server when your site grows...
    Last edited by BaselineAce; 12-01-2005 at 06:08 PM.
    PacketAce
    Because packets were meant to be delivered.
    Premium Mzima Bandwith at Equinix - Secaucus, NJ

  10. #10
    As rhsolution said, BeTheHost performs pretty well on web hosting speed indeed.

    Whichever web host you choose, there are more fast ones out there, be sure to pick a package with enough RAM. I always upgrade to 1GB RAM to the servers I rent.
    Compare the speed of your web host with 2,000+ (!) other submitted web hosts

    http://www.hostingspeeds.com/

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