Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Web Hosting : Looking for new host: need some advice

[sophie22]

Hello,
I'm new here and need some advice about web hosting. A friend of mine and I are working on a fan site and we are considering changing hosts because the customer service is horrible, not helpful at all and we need it because we are both novices, though we're learning. My partner wants to switch as soon as possible, but there are a few problems. We're paid up for a year: newbie mistake. And we don't want to make a decision or even inquire about a possible refund until we find something good. I don't know what we're going to do. We may stick it out for a year until we can find something that works. We defiantely don't want to trade one problem for another. If anyone has any advice and/or know of any hosting service that is good for fan sites, newbies, and offers good customer service, please let me know. I'm not too trusting of reviews as you never know who's writing them. Thanks!!

[-p9-]

Hello sophie22,


Sorry to hear your problem. May I ask what control panel used & your disk space requirements for proper recommendation ? Thank you,


Regards,

[sTag-Dan]

Hi Sophie,

Your situation is totally understandable and I know this has happened to a lot of people. Interesting idea you have there but may I know what kind of fan site you're running? (Yes, I am one nosy guy )

What/How many are you anticipating in terms of hits/storage space/bandwidth? You might not know this which is okay since I assume you're just starting out so anything will do. Just make sure the host you choose gives you the option of upgrade if necessary in the future which I think MOST hosts do already nowadays.

It's not hard to find a reputable host if you do your research aside from reading reviews, you can also read how long they've been around as well as test out their support yourself! Even better, call them and ask any questions you need to know. You should be able to tell if a host wants to help or not by their tone of voice.

Take some time, research and you should find a dream host with ease. Good luck!

Note: Start by looking in the advertising section*

[sophie22]

Originally Posted by Axe Solutions

Hello sophie22,


Sorry to hear your problem. May I ask what control panel used & your disk space requirements for proper recommendation ? Thank you,


Regards,

I'm a newbie, so I don't know if I'm answering your question correctly, but I'll try. We currently have 5000MB, which seems sufficient enough, though I'm sure more would be even better, as it's a fan site that will grow everyday and we'll probably be loading lots of files. We'll also have a downloads section, so bandwich should be reasonable. I don't know exactly what you mean by control panel (yes, I've got quite a bit of learning to do lol, my partner is a tad more versed than me), but I can tell you that we use FTP to upload files, have cutenews installation, so would need something compatible with that php, etc. Hope that helps! Thanks again!


sTag Dan,

The site is for a relatively unknown actress. She's new, but has a good fanbase in the soap world. She's very likely to get more popular and then we'll defiantely need suffient space, bandwich, etc.

[Martie]

You might also just check your current hosts policy on refunds, cancellations. Its possible you might get a pro-rated refund for those un-used months. That should be stated somewhere in their terms of service page if they do it.

[gate2vn]

Sophie22,

- how much are you paying for that? 5000MB disk space and how many GB of bandwidth?
- you mentioned to PHP, I assume you are using a php-based forum?
- how about the database? mySQL?

[sophie22]

Originally Posted by gate2vn

Sophie22,

- how much are you paying for that? 5000MB disk space and how many GB of bandwidth?
- you mentioned to PHP, I assume you are using a php-based forum?
- how about the database? mySQL?

Hello,
Thanks again for responding everyone. To answer your questions gate2vn,

We're paying $7.95 a month for 5000MB and bandwidth I'm not sure, but I know it is not unlimited. Yes, I think the database is mySQL.

[sTag-Dan]

It looks like cPanel is the best fit for you as a control panel. It's widely used in the web-hosting industry and in my opinion extremely user friendly.

[gate2vn]

Originally Posted by sophie22

We're paying $7.95 a month for 5000MB and bandwidth I'm not sure, but I know it is not unlimited. Yes, I think the database is mySQL.

Because good bandwidth can cost more. So, you should figure out how many GB of transfer you are using? Take a look at your current control panel, it should state it somewhere. Or how many are you aiming to get?

[sophie22]

Originally Posted by gate2vn

Because good bandwidth can cost more. So, you should figure out how many GB of transfer you are using? Take a look at your current control panel, it should state it somewhere. Or how many are you aiming to get?

We have 50GB of Bandwidth.

[Jedito]

just to check if you are using cpanel go to yourdomain.com/cpanel

Changing yourdomain.com with your domain

If you are using cpanel, you will prompted for user name and password.

There are some hosts that may credit the remaining time with your host to the new contract with them.

[premium20]

Your best approach:

1. Check if you are hosting on cpanel server, and if yes, you can head to advertising forum to check on various offers for cpanel.

2. Are you really using 5 Gb space? It will be a good idea to make a fair idea about disk requirements.

3. Do you need an ability to resell? I think, if I read the post correctly, you don't. Given this situation, you should be able to get a lot of options that will be reliable. But if you intend to resell in future, take a decision accordingly.

4. As mentioned by Jedito, talk to your new host and some of them might discount their plan against the unused part of plan on your old host.

Best of Luck in your research for a stable host.

[Radu|WHMTalk]

I have heard many good reviews about hostgator.

I think they have what you need

[REVCOM-Lawrence]

Also, there are hosts here that will buy out your current contract with your hosting provider if you are stuck in a rut. Usually the new hosting provider will credit your account up to $50 provided you show a copy of your cancellation from your late hosting provider.