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  1. #1

    What hosting is right for me?

    Hey WHT!

    Long time reader/lurker, first time poster. I'm setting up a family personal website with my family's last name as a domain. We don't have high bandwidth requirements but have some needs that I've noticed some big shared hosters don't provide.

    First, we're looking for about 30-40 gigs of space. The majority of that space will be used up for e-mail (5 people in the family, 5-7gbs per account), since we are all moving our personal e-mails to this domain. We need reliability and backup for the e-mail, which I'm sure most plans provide. However, we are also looking for a decent size e-mail attachment size ~20-50megs. I'm not sure what many of the big hosts provide, but the attachment size would be nice.

    The biggest requirement however, is the ability to use the site like a on-the-go mobile flash drive. The ability to upload work files at will and use them website as a storage space to transfer research data and other things. We're not planning on storing any illegal files, but we will need a decent amount of space. My father does image reading for his clinic, and those images are about 10mb each and number in the hundreds. I work at a law firm and require a lot of documents that need to be accessed on a regular basis. My sister does sound editing and would require music files to be moved around. Basically, I'm looking for a portion of the site to be password protected that would allow this usage. I was likely going to add some sort of upload utility through the site and a database to list the files. (Help on setting that up would be appreciated too!)

    I was initially planning on going with HostGator but I read (maybe incorrectly on here) that they don't allow that sort of flash drive/storage usage.

    I was wondering what you folks suggest for a budget that is ~10 a month. We are willing to go higher if it is really needed but we'd prefer to keep it as cheap as possible. If this isn't possible, then give me options so I can consider them. I don't want ideal conditions (like it'd be ideal for everyone to be running a dedicated server but don't always need it), I just want something that will work and that I can depend on.

    Thanks alot for your help!

  2. #2
    I recommend a VPS try liquidweb.com there managed VPS's are amazing

  3. #3
    Join Date
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    Look as you need filehosting instead just shared hosting account.
    TK Rustelekom LLC Dedicated server since 2002, RIPE NCC member, LIR

  4. #4
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    You can get a regular hosting account and then use Google Apps for emails, have you thought in that?
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  5. #5
    Join Date
    Jan 2001
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    Yes, definitely have a look at Google Apps for mail and colaboration.

    Also look at mediamax for file hosting.

  6. #6
    A free host would do but buy a domian that way the price would be about £3 a year $6.
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    Last edited by bear; 04-18-2008 at 02:11 PM.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Jan 2001
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    By the way, you don't say where you live, but there are probably data privacy issues for both medical and legal data stored on an employee's computer away from the clinic or office.

  8. #8
    Hey guys, thanks for the responses.

    I was looking for an all-in-one solution. I don't want a free host because I want the comfort of having some sort of reliability, no ads and such. Also I wanted some of the advanced control panel utilities offered by paid hosts.

    Further, I don't really want file hosting because I wanted to integrate the entire database into the website for easy perusal by the family. After doing some math, I'll likely need ~20gigs for the e-mail, >100mb for the site and about a couple gigs for the file storage. Is there no shared host that can shoulder that demand? I wanted to keep it fairly cheap. Under a 100-150 a year.

    The idea for google apps is actually a pretty good one. They have a very good interface. If I can find a webhost that can give me some sort of file hosting then I can do ahead with that. However, I was looking for an all in one solution if possible!

    As far as the legality of medical or legal data. They are for research purposes, therefore there is no identifiable data on the images or the documents to relate them back to the person/patient/client. Therefore they don't fall under traditional HIPPA or confidentiality guidelines.

    Thanks alot guys!
    Last edited by misplacedaj; 04-18-2008 at 03:03 PM.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    May 2006
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    You may find shared-hosting accounts of 20gb+ but you most likely will be booted of from any of them if they are oversellers (exceptions are always there).

    Imo Your budget and needs don't seem to match for a non overselling host.
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  10. #10
    Join Date
    Nov 2006
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    You can try
    http://cirtexhosting.com/shared.shtml
    I have hosted 3 of my site over there and it is gr8 host...
    u can go for Professional Plan
    30gig space
    1500 gig of b/w
    and everything else u/l (mysql, ftp..... etc)
    $13.99/mo. for one yr...
    for email u can use Google apps and they are compatible with mobiles if u dun want to use the default email provided with the cPanel...

    they have latest cPanel as der control panel...

  11. #11
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    I would be careful when dealing with secure/confidential data. I would tend to shy away from something that is promised as free or real cheap! I would find something that was secure.
    http://www.ClearBlueNetworks.com
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  12. #12
    Join Date
    Aug 2007
    Location
    Montreal
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jedito View Post
    You can get a regular hosting account and then use Google Apps for emails, have you thought in that?


    Yup, that's what I decided to do, and it's working great so far. I find it much more professional to have an email address be firstname@firstlastname.ca than firstlastname@gmail.com, and setting it up is easy. Just remember to make backups using thunderbird or outlook every once in a while (using POP access). I even set it up in cpanel that by typing in my domain, it redirects me to the google apps sign in page, which I find easier than typing in google.com/a/domainname/mail ugh, that's ugly and a pain.

  13. #13
    Join Date
    Aug 2007
    Location
    Montreal
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    Oh, sorry, I forgot about these details in the OP's post:

    Quote Originally Posted by misplacedaj View Post

    First, we're looking for about 30-40 gigs of space..... The majority of that space will be used up for e-mail (5 people in the family, 5-7gbs per account), since we are all moving our personal e-mails to this domain. We need reliability and backup for the e-mail, which I'm sure most plans provide. However, we are also looking for a decent size e-mail attachment size ~20-50megs. I'm not sure what many of the big hosts provide, but the attachment size would be nice.

    The size per account is what google apps offers, but email attachments are smaller, if I'm not mistaken (10 megs?). Backup services are provided if you pay for premier service (or whatever they call it).

  14. #14

    Hello Again

    Hey guys!

    The more the research google apps, the better it looks! It looks like I'll likely go with that. So what remains is the need for a decent host that provides me with ~5-10 gigs of space that I can use for data storage and the website. I want to be able to build password protected file database.

    As far security and confidentality. The information isn't that confidential. Its not credit card numbers or social security numbers. Just want a nice place to be able to stored good research that is generally readily available after a long arduous process.

    Everything I've read about Cirtex hosting on this site doesn't seem very positive... oy ve...

  15. #15
    Join Date
    Jan 2001
    Posts
    563
    Quote Originally Posted by Richardmtl View Post
    Oh, sorry, I forgot about these details in the OP's post:




    The size per account is what google apps offers, but email attachments are smaller, if I'm not mistaken (10 megs?). Backup services are provided if you pay for premier service (or whatever they call it).
    I don't think email is the right tool for moving around files of more than a few megs. Whether they get through above that is variable anyway as different mail gateways have different limits.

  16. #16
    Join Date
    Nov 2006
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    Mumbai, India
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    Quote Originally Posted by misplacedaj View Post
    Hey guys!
    Everything I've read about Cirtex hosting on this site doesn't seem very positive... oy ve...
    Emmm..... dunno maan

    I still wud be using it but had to move due to load.. traffic of my site had increased n i had to move...

    http://www.smokyhosts.com/reseller-hosting/

    is the current host im using... happy with der services

    another host which im using for a blog site

    http://sitelane.net/services/?view=shared&act=compare

    again good host i never had ne prob with them using both host for arnd 5 months
    site lane has really cheap plans for ur 10gig requirment

  17. #17
    Join Date
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    Quote Originally Posted by Metalkid View Post
    Emmm..... dunno maan

    I still wud be using it but had to move due to load.. traffic of my site had increased n i had to move...

    http://www.smokyhosts.com/reseller-hosting/

    is the current host im using... happy with der services

    another host which im using for a blog site

    http://sitelane.net/services/?view=shared&act=compare

    again good host i never had ne prob with them using both host for arnd 5 months
    site lane has really cheap plans for ur 10gig requirment
    Cheap != good service when considering hosting over 10 gigs.

    And what is with the "texting" speak? It's sad how fluent English is being butchered with that crap.
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  18. #18
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    Aug 2007
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    Montreal
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    Quote Originally Posted by larwilliams View Post
    And what is with the "texting" speak? It's sad how fluent English is being butchered with that crap.


    Yup, I skipped over the post entirely when I saw it was written like that. Oh well, my loss.

  19. #19
    Join Date
    Aug 2007
    Location
    Montreal
    Posts
    39
    Quote Originally Posted by misplacedaj View Post
    Hey guys!

    The more the research google apps, the better it looks! It looks like I'll likely go with that. So what remains is the need for a decent host that provides me with ~5-10 gigs of space that I can use for data storage and the website. I want to be able to build password protected file database.

    As far security and confidentality. The information isn't that confidential. Its not credit card numbers or social security numbers. Just want a nice place to be able to stored good research that is generally readily available after a long arduous process.

    Everything I've read about Cirtex hosting on this site doesn't seem very positive... oy ve...
    I'm with Downtownhost, and I am very happy with their service and with the product offered. Do a search for them and you'll see the good reviews. I can't comment on others as I haven't been a customer of anyone else yet, but if you do a search, there are other good hosts that get good reviews as well.

  20. #20
    Join Date
    Jan 2001
    Posts
    563
    Quote Originally Posted by Richardmtl View Post
    I'm with Downtownhost, and I am very happy with their service and with the product offered. Do a search for them and you'll see the good reviews. I can't comment on others as I haven't been a customer of anyone else yet, but if you do a search, there are other good hosts that get good reviews as well.
    Jedito has already posted in this thread so maybe they've hooked up

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