I am in the market for hosting my own website. I want it to perform several functions:
1. Password protected image galleries. I am tired of dealing with free picture sites - I want to be able to upload full sized (2-3 mb) jpgs, organize them, and put a password on them so only I and those I want to view them, can.
2. Education Website. I am designing a web page that will be for my job as a teacher. It will be aimed toward students and parents, and allow downloads of assignments, syllabi, etc.
3. Personal website. I am designing a second part of my site that will contain my own artwork.
All of these will be under the same domain. My first page is a choice between the two pages.
There seems to be a ton of web hosts out there, and I am confused as to what I really need. I have looked at 1and1, godaddy, bluehost, and a few others. I also saw free providers like freehostia, etc.
Any ideas or suggestions? Anyone have a web site provider they really like? Keep in mind my site will be low traffic - nothing like this site, etc. Thanks!
Web Page Hosts
I just moved over to a VPS on JaguarPC. So far so good. My old webhosting company has finally ticked me off, so I am slowly moving everything over.
I have used Gallery for hosting my images. There are other instances of software out there but that one is pretty popular.
I have used Gallery for hosting my images. There are other instances of software out there but that one is pretty popular.
Thanks rob and zeus. I am going to check those out later today.
3 month trial sounds like a plan - how much after?
I also want to be able to feature a few students of the month, where I would have their artwork up, and I wanted to have a little area below each picture where people could leave comments about the art (like a guest book but visible on the same page). Would this feature be something that would come with the "tool sets" of a basic web site package?
Ultimately I am looking for the cheapest option, without causing me too much stress. Anyone else on have have any suggestions?
3 month trial sounds like a plan - how much after?
I also want to be able to feature a few students of the month, where I would have their artwork up, and I wanted to have a little area below each picture where people could leave comments about the art (like a guest book but visible on the same page). Would this feature be something that would come with the "tool sets" of a basic web site package?
Ultimately I am looking for the cheapest option, without causing me too much stress. Anyone else on have have any suggestions?
Cheers, Damnidge
be careful of dreamhost. They were really good a few years back but they've been overloading their servers with new users and it's been getting pretty bad in terms of speed and technical support.
A couple of friends of mine left dreamhost due to unreliable service
I've been looking into a new web host as well. It really is hit or miss. What was once a good web hosting company turns into a lemon a few years later.
I'm currently looking into lunarpages.com They seem to get good recent reviews. And the price is pretty cheap. A few friends of mine are using them and have no complaints.
Stay away from windows servers. The linux/Unix ones seem to be more stable. For obvious reasons.
If you need reliability and more flexibility your only option is to go the virtual private server route. But you have to pay a lot more for it.
Trowa
A couple of friends of mine left dreamhost due to unreliable service
I've been looking into a new web host as well. It really is hit or miss. What was once a good web hosting company turns into a lemon a few years later.
I'm currently looking into lunarpages.com They seem to get good recent reviews. And the price is pretty cheap. A few friends of mine are using them and have no complaints.
Stay away from windows servers. The linux/Unix ones seem to be more stable. For obvious reasons.
If you need reliability and more flexibility your only option is to go the virtual private server route. But you have to pay a lot more for it.
Trowa
--
Pain heals. Chicks dig scars. Glory...lasts forever!
Pain heals. Chicks dig scars. Glory...lasts forever!
You have to excuse my noobness, but I can use a linux server and still upload / web master it from windows xp correct? What is the main difference between the linux and windows servers, aside from the obvious (different OS)
Cheers, Damnidge
Basically it depends on what software, windows has the phpnuke stuff and linux has..everything else (afaik.. :P)
Had no problems with dreamhost as of yet, the latest e-mail had some news of them finishing some huge server cluster move... o_O
Had no problems with dreamhost as of yet, the latest e-mail had some news of them finishing some huge server cluster move... o_O
on your side you will not see any difference. Basically the difference is in the background. You can do all your normal FTP stuff from windows XP with no problem.
a general rule when it comes to servers Unix/Linux > Windows
It might be a pain in the ass, but try out a couple of servers. Most have a money back guarantee, but read the fine print and make sure you can get your money back hassle free. Some have really nice control panels for you to set up your server the way you want.
For your needs, I would try out lunarpages or dreamhost (if they fixed their problems).
D2fRob, your not having any issues with Dreamhost? miss ya in the monster mash. show your ugly mug once in a while :)
a general rule when it comes to servers Unix/Linux > Windows
It might be a pain in the ass, but try out a couple of servers. Most have a money back guarantee, but read the fine print and make sure you can get your money back hassle free. Some have really nice control panels for you to set up your server the way you want.
For your needs, I would try out lunarpages or dreamhost (if they fixed their problems).
D2fRob, your not having any issues with Dreamhost? miss ya in the monster mash. show your ugly mug once in a while :)
--
Pain heals. Chicks dig scars. Glory...lasts forever!
Pain heals. Chicks dig scars. Glory...lasts forever!
Nope no problems at all, especially liking the 90% off on the first year :D Currently running justwarfare.com on it. So if you're interested in seeing some of the top euro players/teams there are some serverside demos available.
Just speculating here, but I imagine that with webhosting on a large scale it's going to cost a lot to upgrade to the next step/size etc. Dreamhost could have really pushed their luck on the number of users on old hardware, then once they had enough (and enough money) they could make the move to the next step...but just a guess.
Just speculating here, but I imagine that with webhosting on a large scale it's going to cost a lot to upgrade to the next step/size etc. Dreamhost could have really pushed their luck on the number of users on old hardware, then once they had enough (and enough money) they could make the move to the next step...but just a guess.