PHP / Domain / Hosting advice

GSXRMovistar

GSXRMovistar

GSXRMovistar

Soldato
Joined
6 Nov 2002
Posts
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Location
London UK
Okay now a couple years ago I used to have my own website, it was hosted by a friend of mine on a rented server and anything that I needed to do was easy, ie I’d ask him and he would sort it (domain names/hosting/server side scripting/webmail). :p

Anyway this is no longer available and I’ve just been making do with my Zen web space that comes part of my ADSL package but I now need a little extra and could do with some advice.

I’m looking to host a photo gallery which runs off PHP but Zen doesn’t support this for the standard ADSL accounts so it looks like I need new hosting.

So while I’m at it I thought I’d also register a new domain name to use with it and also if possible have my own mail server which I could access via a web front-end (I’m currently not able to access most emails providers from where I work and this would resolve that).

I’ve been looking at various hosting sites but I’m beginning to get lost with all the options and what I actually need to go for and setup.

Can anyone here point me in the right direction in terms to what I actually need and an idea of what it’s roughly going to cost?

Thanks for any help given, it's appreciated.
 
For a photo gallery you'll probably need a simple host company that can provide PHP + MySQL, virtually every host provides these today, i wouldnt be suprised if you did get lost in hosting options since the market is flooded wwith lots of hosts trying to make their space, ochostreview.co.uk would be a good place to start your search, if you need any extra help feel free to email/msn me
 
Take a look at www.ochostreview.co.uk and ensure you have PHP and MySQL which pratically all the hosts there do. Some also include a free domain, etc.

99.999% will also provide you with a webmail interface and if your work system blocks the non-standard ports these systems commonly use then it's certainly possible to setup a Webmail program on your webspace - personally I like Squirrelmail. Hosts may or may not help you with this; contact those who make it to your shortlist to find out :)
 
I have heard good things from www.tsohost.co.uk and I can reccomend you stay away from Site5 and Dreamhost due to a lot of negative reviews recently on hosting forums.

Look for a hosting provider who is established. Unsure? Use this:

http://whois.sc/domain.com

This will show you when the domain was registered and you can normally spot providers upto no good when they say "Established since 1998" and their domain was registered in Jan 2006.
 
I know I'm biased, but I'd like to say 'NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO please re-think!'

The website doesn't make sense, it disagrees with itself, and they've not been around long in the hosting industry (months?)

Also, they downright lie on their site. According to the site, they host "thousands" of sites yet the owner said to me it was more like 959. I'm still checking for sites hosted by them to find all their servers and verify that number ;)

If you'd like to spend £2.50/mo tops then I'd recommend tsohost @ £1.99/mo. I've spoken to Tsohost like I've spoken to the owner of Getpro and I have a gut instict as to which is the far better choice :)

Anyway, I hope I'm allowed to make this post. Darren, I want my commission :p
 
this is the one i use:

http://startlogic.com/products_prologic.html

15 Gig Space
Free Domain Name
Unlimited E-Mail Accounts
Control Panel : VDECK 2.0
500 Gig Web Traffic Transfer
$4.95 a month

Free setup

Very stable, i havnt had much dealing with the tech support simply as i havnt needed any. I only run my site of it for bete testers of my software.

Hope that helps
 
i did everything by email as i needed some things setup that i wanted to make sure they could do/provide what i needed.

As far as the online form am sure it asks for you domain as well. I just wacked everything in an email.
 
GSXRMovistar said:
15Gb/500Gb transfer, wow thats loads for such a small price.

Was it just a case of filling in the online request and everything was put in place for you (ie domain name, access tc) automatically?

Cheers.
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Look how slowly their website loads though due to the latency. This will have a more noticeable affect on FTP, POP, IMAP, etc.

Unless you need 15GB of webspace, you'd be much better going for a UK based provider :).
 
Don't be swayed by huge numbers. It's very easy for a provider selling £50/year packages to offer 500GB/month, safe in the knowledge that someone with that kind of budget could have no real legitimate use for that kind of transfer. If you, for instance, tried to host a forum like OcUK (which I'd wager uses around 500GB/month) you'd be kicked off pretty quickly ;).

Edit: Decided to remain neutral...
 
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the home site they have is very slow, i was told by them when i signed up that it was because they use the server that the main site is on for support and sales etc.

The server am on is very fast indeed. die-sel.net (not much on it, been reworked)
 
Gibbs said:
the home site they have is very slow, i was told by them when i signed up that it was because they use the server that the main site is on for support and sales etc.
Click to expand...
Sorry - what a load of rubbish :p
 
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