We are looking for some help and advice in choosing a web host that will meet our needs. We are a non-profit state-wide youth organization made up of "clubs" from different cities in our state. In particular we are looking for a web host that will provide us with most or all of the following features:
1. A reasonable amount of space (50MB??)
2. The ability to host numerous sub-domains (12??), such as
http://subdomain.maindomain.com which actually points to
http://maindomain.com/subdomain, so that some of our clubs can have a few pages of their own.
3. Allows for several domain names on the same account, such as
http://extradomain.com that points to
http://maindomain.com/extradomain.
4. Password protected directories.
5. FTP and Telenet access to the command line. In addition, we would like anonymous FTP access so that our clubs can both upload and download information.
6. POP email accounts and mailing lists
7. A Discussion board
8. CGI-Bin access, Perl, and some form of a database
9. Allows for the hosting of legal .mp3s and with the possibility in the future of providing for full support to stream audio and video from our site (which would be limited to special situations).
10. A policy that refuses service to adult site and spammers.
11. Quality tech support and a fairly simple control panel for two reasons: several of us currently have a technical background (this might not always be the case}, and we do not have extensive experience maintaining our own site.
Ideally, we would like to pay under $20 a month, including setup and any one-time fees, and receive a 30-day money back guarantee to have this site hosted. We realize that you get what you pay for and are willing to pay a little more for outstanding reliability and support. By looking at user forums and reviews, as well as the hosts themselves, we are currently considering companies such as Futurequest, WebServePro, and Veoweb.
Any comments on the above companies, especially Veoweb (http://www.veoweb.net) since we have uncovered little information on them, or any other host that you think may be right for us, is greatly appreciated.
[This message has been edited by Leslie Franke (edited 08-16-2000).]