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  1. #1

    Web hosting for students (college level)

    I am teaching a series of college level web design class this Fall and am in search of hosts to recommend for students. Up to this point I have been using the University's web services but they have recently become more of a hassle and I feel that it is best to get the students headed in a more professional direction with real world hosting experience.

    My requirements are...
    500MB–1GB (last years class only used up 1GB as a whole)
    at least 2 mySQL databases
    cPanel would be preferred
    Bandwidth doesn't need to be too excessive, students will mostly be testing and experimenting, I don't foresee any of them driving a large amount of traffic.
    Cost effective—this is a public University and I need to be mindful of expenses

    As of now I have narrowed it down to either A Small Orange or HawkHost based on the yearly price and overall reviews. I am curious to know if anyone has had experience with either or both A Small Orange or HawkHost. Or, if you have another suggestion please offer it up!

    I appreciate any thoughts on the two hosts or any other hosts that you might thing will work. I also plan on setting up with either A Small Orange or HawkHost so that I can walk students through a similar setup.

  2. #2
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    Yeah HawkHost would be my choice for that.
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  3. #3
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    No direct experience, but everybody would high five Tony if they could over at Hawk; if that helps.

  4. #4
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    Mar 2010
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    Personally, I had a very bad experience with A Small Orange. When I first started, I used **********.com's free webhosting. Then I switched to ASO because my traffic was increasing. ASO quickly suspended me for excessive resource usage. Which was quite ridiculous since ********** never suspended me even though I was on their free service. I expected much more since ASO's prices are very very premium.

    You might save money by purchasing a reseller's account for your class.

  5. #5
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    You may want to contact to some hosts that can sponsor that kind of projects.
    Shared Web Hosting - Reseller Hosting - Semi-Dedicated Servers - SolusVM/XEN VPS
    LiteSpeed Powered - R1Soft Continuous Data Protection - 24/7 Chat/Email/Helpdesk Support
    Cpanel/WHM - Softaculous - R1soft Backup - Litespeed - Cloudlinux -Site Builder- SSH support - Account Migration
    DowntownHost LLC - In Business since 2001- West/Center/East USA - Netherlands - Singapore

  6. #6
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    I would saw Hawk as well. Are you requiring numerous amount of those accounts you specified or just one? If you need numerous maybe a reseller account would be best therefor you can host multiple websites.
    ¦ Ernie - ColoCrossing by HostPapa | Enterprise Colocation and Baremetal Services
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  7. #7
    I don't know if this is would work for you, but if multiple students could somehow share a reseller account, that would be the most cost-effective solution.

    Or as Jedito said, you may be able to work something out with a host if you contact them directly.
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  8. #8
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    Well he (the teacher) could have access to the main reseller portion of the account and create numerous accounts for the students. Probably would be the easiest way to go.
    ¦ Ernie - ColoCrossing by HostPapa | Enterprise Colocation and Baremetal Services
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  9. #9
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    I would recommend getting a reseller account and just setting up separate cpanel accounts for each of your class members. Of course this depends on the number of students that you have, but it is fairly easily to create accounts in whm or even scripting it to create the accounts automatically.

  10. #10
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    Hell yeah, I'd give Tony a hi-5!
    We RuNn ThiS
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    Established Jan 11th 2010!

  11. #11
    Great suggestions!

    I am going with HawkHost for both myself and my recommendation towards students, not even sure if I will suggest A Small Orange.. shame because I really like their name but hosting should be picked based on the name of the company.

    I love the idea of doing the reseller account but my institution does not allow for students and faculty to be involved in the exchange of money.. we had a faculty member fired for having accepted money for the rental of a piano last year.

    I will suggest to the students that they might want to do a shared or reseller account.. might also talk with my student club that I oversee, they might be able to swing the reseller account.. students can take money from students. Although it might be in the students best interest to buy their hosting since the final project in the second semester is a portfolio.

    Love to hear other ideas as to how either doing a reseller account or some other situation to help them out with cost.

    I am going to contact HawkHost to see if they want to work something special out, would be a good amount of accounts each year.

  12. #12
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    Good luck with everything.. I really think the reseller account for the students to do between themselves would be most economical. I know thats what a couple institutions do around here for web design classes.
    ¦ Ernie - ColoCrossing by HostPapa | Enterprise Colocation and Baremetal Services
    ¦ Colocation | Dedicated Servers | Private Cloud | Managed Services | IP Transit
    ¦ Buffalo, NY | Los Angeles | Atlanta | Chicago | Dallas | Atlanta | San Jose | Seattle
    ¦ Equick @ colocrossing.com

  13. #13
    I have contacted HawkHost using their ticket system. I suggested some of the ideas discussed here to see if they are interested in working anything out. Regardless, I am going to sign up with them and recommend them to my students as the place to go.. the hosting will only be like %19 and some change using the coupon code that I found on here... that's less then 1 book and will most likely be of greater value come job hunting time.

    Thanks again!

  14. #14
    Join Date
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    Yeah, HawkHost will probably give a deal they are really nice people.
    We RuNn ThiS
    A clan network. We house some of the biggest & brightest clan & player talent to date.
    Established Jan 11th 2010!

  15. #15
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    Talk to HostDime - they might be willing to offer you free hosting http://www.hostdime.com/why/community-programs/
    XeHost.net - Hosting websites since 1999!
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  16. #16
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    Ask around for students I am sure there would be hosts that would do it for free.
    CloudNexus Technology Services
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  17. #17
    @XeHSean

    I have sent them a proposal, thank you for the suggestion! It will be interesting to see what they say since it doesn't appear that they are accepting applications for their educational plans. I will also still need to pursue HawkHost since many of my students would want to use their hosting for promotional needs.

  18. #18
    Hawkhost is good, I use it.


    Litespeed > Apache, so Hawkhost > ASO.

    Trust me, Hawkhost is the last shared hosting provider you will ever need. You can definitely feel the difference in litespeed and the snappiness. I recommend all hosts to offer litespeed.

    Plus, the guys at Hawkhost know what they are doing and got perfect plans and prices.

    Also, check out http://speedysparrow.com/ (the guy that posted above). They use litespeed and good prices. Never used them, but check 'em out.

  19. #19
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    Quote Originally Posted by aeharding View Post
    Litespeed > Apache, so Hawkhost > ASO.
    That depends on a lot of things
    ~ @PreetamJinka

  20. #20
    Quote Originally Posted by aeharding View Post
    Also, check out http://speedysparrow.com/ (the guy that posted above). They use litespeed and good prices. Never used them, but check 'em out.
    I looked into speedysparrow but was hopping to say with a US provider, no rational for my decision... maybe it will help our economy?

    Quote Originally Posted by aeharding View Post
    Litespeed > Apache
    I don't know a whole lot about Litespeed.. isn't/wasn't there a whole issue surrounding censorship with them?—not that my students, or myself, will be posting illegal or adult themed content.. although I guess I won't really know what my students will be doing outside of the class, I think it is best not to think about that.

  21. #21
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    Quote Originally Posted by glugalump View Post
    I looked into speedysparrow but was hopping to say with a US provider, no rational for my decision... maybe it will help our economy?



    I don't know a whole lot about Litespeed.. isn't/wasn't there a whole issue surrounding censorship with them?—not that my students, or myself, will be posting illegal or adult themed content.. although I guess I won't really know what my students will be doing outside of the class, I think it is best not to think about that.
    There is a clause in their AUP/TOS regarding adult content. It has been general consensus that it's a non-issue in a shared hosting environment.
    Cody R.
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  22. #22
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    Quote Originally Posted by glugalump View Post
    I am going with HawkHost for both myself and my recommendation towards students, not even sure if I will suggest A Small Orange.. shame because I really like their name but hosting should be picked based on the name of the company.
    Excellent choice, I'm sure you and your students will be very happy with HawkHost.

    Quote Originally Posted by glugalump View Post
    I love the idea of doing the reseller account but my institution does not allow for students and faculty to be involved in the exchange of money.. we had a faculty member fired for having accepted money for the rental of a piano last year.
    You don't have to charge your students anything. Just because it's called a resellers account, doesn't mean you have to actually "resell" anything. You're given a big pizza pie (server resources), how you split up the disk space/bandwidth is up to you. You can use your resellers account to host 1 web site, or 20 smaller web sites. You'll be given access to WHM (web host manager) which is where you create cPanel accounts, you can specify the resources allocated to each domain. So you could pay for the resellers account and give free hosting to your students. Sounds great but there is one catch, you're responsible for their tech support. That is unless you find a web host which offers end user support.

    Quote Originally Posted by glugalump View Post
    I am going to contact HawkHost to see if they want to work something special out, would be a good amount of accounts each year.
    That's a great idea and definitely worth a shot. The worse that can happen is a "no". I would recommend contacting their sales department (sales@hawkhost.com) using your official .edu e-mail address. Assuming your students won't require a lot of tech support, the best solution would be a resellers account with a generous .edu discount.
    What's your budget?

    Seriously, what's your budget?

  23. #23
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    Quote Originally Posted by glugalump View Post
    @XeHSean

    I have sent them a proposal, thank you for the suggestion! It will be interesting to see what they say since it doesn't appear that they are accepting applications for their educational plans. I will also still need to pursue HawkHost since many of my students would want to use their hosting for promotional needs.
    If they don't, I'd recommend that you try contact companies directly and ask if they'd be able to help you out. I'm sure Host Dime is not the only company that would be willing to support an educational institution.
    XeHost.net - Hosting websites since 1999!
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  24. #24
    Quote Originally Posted by RossMAN View Post
    You don't have to charge your students anything. Just because it's called a resellers account, doesn't mean you have to actually "resell" anything. You're given a big pizza pie (server resources), how you split up the disk space/bandwidth is up to you.
    Why didn't I think of that.. just because it is a resellers account, doesn't mean I have to sell anything (had to repeat that so that it would sink into my head). I do agree that this is the best direction BUT the biggest issue is that I would end up funding it and although I love my job and my students I haven't gotten a raise in 4 years... promotions, yes... raises, no. I might try and write for a grant and see if I can obtain funding but that might for for next years group.

    Quote Originally Posted by RossMAN View Post
    That's a great idea and definitely worth a shot. The worse that can happen is a "no". I would recommend contacting their sales department (sales@hawkhost.com) using your official .edu e-mail address. Assuming your students won't require a lot of tech support, the best solution would be a resellers account with a generous .edu discount.
    I have contacted them, things are looking good. I also contacted 4 others, still waiting for replies.

    Thank you for your post, very helpful!

  25. #25
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    Quote Originally Posted by glugalump View Post
    Great suggestions!

    I am going with HawkHost for both myself and my recommendation towards students, not even sure if I will suggest A Small Orange.. shame because I really like their name but hosting should be picked based on the name of the company.

    I love the idea of doing the reseller account but my institution does not allow for students and faculty to be involved in the exchange of money.. we had a faculty member fired for having accepted money for the rental of a piano last year.

    I will suggest to the students that they might want to do a shared or reseller account.. might also talk with my student club that I oversee, they might be able to swing the reseller account.. students can take money from students. Although it might be in the students best interest to buy their hosting since the final project in the second semester is a portfolio.

    Love to hear other ideas as to how either doing a reseller account or some other situation to help them out with cost.

    I am going to contact HawkHost to see if they want to work something special out, would be a good amount of accounts each year.
    Greetings,
    Being a "reseller" does not mean that you would need to actually "sell" the hosting. It offers several advantages such as giving you the option to manage your students web space. You can of course suspend/terminate an account when the student moved on. The student can take a cPanel backup and migrate it to a new host once they are done with your course.
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