Web hosting

After a long search and some (very) bad experiences, I landed at www.site5.com. I have around 20 websites there. I've been using them as a webhost for about a year now without problems.

I have use and like Dreamhost.  They have pretty good rates, and an amazing feature set, including one-click install of WordPress weblog software. They have good customer service, and I haven't ever had a major problem with them.  I currently host three domains with them and three weblogs (of various types, see my weblog software post for details).

Edit:  Oh, and if any of you decide to go with Dreamhost, please use me as a referal by clicking on this link!  Thanks! http://www.dreamhost.com/r.cgi?40525

Petite Anglaise kindly mentioned me A small Orange. They allow donations directly for hosting (donations go directly to your host without passing through your paypal account). Thanks petite!

I found my hosting company after reading a lot in Webhostingtalk.
In another forum I visit, International WebDevelopers Network(IWDN), I just read a topic about somebody who is switching from A small orange, because they seemingly have been down a lot lately.

Finding a good hosting company is really a hassle. There are so many bad hosts out there..

Finding a good hosting company is really a hassle. There are so many bad hosts out there..

I completely agree with you Gary.

I now need a dedicated server for Expat.com, and it's very difficult to find the right company. A lot of people often go to the cheapest. But if the prices are low, the service is really bad (or you have to pay a lot each time you call the hotline )

Something important to know is that you'll get a better rank in search engines (and more traffic) in the country where your website is hosted. I'd like to move Expat.com to the US, but it can be complicated, as renting a server in the states is considered like doing business there.

Do you really need a dedicated server? Because of disk space or bandwidth?

I have a reseller account at site 5 on a shared server and it serves over 20 websites right now.
Of course I'd like to have a dedicated server but economically it doesn't make sense yet.

If you're not reselling hosting space, you should look at the plans at Site5.

Their Xtreme plan offers 1Gb webspace and 400Gb bandwidth. You can host 5 sites on that account. The Unleashed plan offers  27Gb space and 750 Gb bandwidth ith unlimited sites. ( Geez, am I being paid by site 5 for this? No! I just like this hosting company )

P.S. you present host refused MySQL connections like an hour ago - too many connections ??!

Well that's a "good" sign isn't it (in mean in terms of visits)?

I need a dedicated server because I need specific functionnalities for the blog platform, such as the wildcards installed (for apache) and other PHP specific stuff 

I'll have a look to site5 thanks for sharing your experience

OK, you want to instal MU Wordpress? Are you going to charge for blogs? A dedicated server starts at $ 89/month.. Mucho dinero for a hobby..

I agree Gary, mucho dinero for a hobby, that takes me a lot of time (and that's a beginning)... but Expat.com will never charge anything to its members. Maybe we'll just have enough funds just by addind a sponsor logo on the free blogs?

Still not sure I'll install MU WP. I am waiting for a new open source project ... but you didn't hear anything

I see you have a google ad-sense ad on the home page. Just wondering, is that working?
I have - on request of users - PayPal donate buttons on some of my forums  (f.i. Newbies).
The hosting costs are being covered by friendly donations. The time I spend on it, well that's my choice ( and my hobby ).

Yes, it's working, very good program but it doesn't generate that much money here. But you should definitely try

I may install a paypal button too, I don't want too much advertisement on the website. I am actually wondering if people would donate for having a "free" blog hosted here?

My only concern is actually about podcasts and videoblogs. I'd like to host these technologies too but it's more expensive (bandwitch consumer & disk space). Maybe  it would be better to launch two separate platforms?

Julien wrote:

Yes, it's working, very good program but it doesn't generate that much money here. But you should definitely try

With 'working' I meant the $$ part

Julien wrote:

I may install a paypal button too, I don't want too much advertisement on the website. I am actually wondering if people would donate for having a "free" blog hosted here?

Same here.. I try to avoid ads as well. Some people will donate, others won't.

Julien wrote:

My only concern is actually about podcasts and videoblogs. I'd like to host these technologies too but it's more expensive (bandwitch consumer & disk space). Maybe  it would be better to launch two separate platforms?

I'd do that, yes. Since both podcasting and videoblogs are really bandwidth consuming, you might consider turning that into a paid service, maybe..

Gary wrote:

With 'working' I meant the $$ part

I can tell you from other experiences that it's working pretty well

The advantage is that the advertisement shown depends of the language of the user, his location, and of the content of the page.

Julien wrote:

Same here.. I try to avoid ads as well. Some people will donate, others won't.

I am not actually used to that system. I'll give it a try if adsense doesn't generate enough  income to finance the project.

I'd do that, yes. Since both podcasting and videoblogs are really bandwidth consuming, you might consider turning that into a paid service, maybe..

Yes I think these advanced features can't be provided for free (I don't want to pay from my pocket ). But I'd like the idea of "expat videoblogs" I'd like to try it myself but I don't know which camera I could use for a videoblog

Personnally, I host my blogs on OVH, but www.servage.net is hosting the pictures on www.k-pi.com ( the site is hosted by OVH, not the pictures).

OK. You're guilty!
I just bought my domain on www.site5.com, now I don't know (yet) what to do with it.
Your fault!

(Oui, je sais, mauvaise foi...)

Jo Ann wrote:

OK. You're guilty!
I just bought my domain on www.site5.com, now I don't know (yet) what to do with it.
Your fault!

(Oui, je sais, mauvaise foi...)

I feel very guilty!

Let me know if you need help

Well Gary, almost one month later, I am looking for help!
I don't understand a thing about FTP and stuff like that, and I want to add a blog to my website... how do I do that?
Any help, Gary & Julien or anyone else, would be appreciated.

Starting with the "please talk in common language"!

Thanks in advance!

Hmmm... now...
I said I bought my domain on www.site5.com, was wrong. I did it on buydomains.com THROUGH site5.com. Does it make a huge difference?
I bet it does but... I'm useless!

It's not very complicated. You need to use a FTP client to upload your files on the server. FileZilla is pretty good in doing that.

When you'll open FileZilla, you'll have to fill a few things:
server name: ftp.yourdomainname.com
username: joann
password: yourpassword
(don't use the anonymous mode)

Have you already selected a blog program?

You said you want to add your blog to your website. Does it mean you've already got a few webpages and you want to add your blog in a sub-directory? Or maybe you could use this kind of address: joann.yourdomainname.com ?

Don't worry, buying your domain name throught site5 or any other company doesn't make any difference

Hey Julien, thanks for the tips!

I already made some webpages and wanted to add a blog so I didn't have to go back and forth all the time. I have two blogs (one personal and one for books), but I want to put at least my personal one on my website...
I thought about Dotclear...

First, you should download the latest version of dotclear sources.

Then you should transfer the files on your server on a directory called "blog" for example. Note that in the control panel of your web host, you should have the choice to create a sub domain name, like blog.yourdmain.com that will point www.yourdomain.com/blog/

Then follow the install instruction of dotclear, it shouldn't be too complicated ... moreover I know many friend here who are dotclear specialists

Let's clarify something first.
Did you buy a domain name only, or did you also buy a hosting package? You need both to get a website online.

If you bought a hosting package at site 5, you can install a lot of things on your site with just one click. Site5 offers 'Fantastico', which installs all kind of programs on your site by just clicking it. You have for instance the choice of 4 blog programs ( b2evolution, Nucleus, pMachine Free and Wordpress ).
So if you're a site5 customer, go to your control panel ( http://yourdomain.com/netadmin ) , click on 'CGI and PHP scripts' and start playing!

Hey again Julien, hey Gary!
I bought a domain and a hosting package, but not on site5.com as I first thought. I already started building it (quite proud of my work as I'm totally illiterate when it comes to that!), from what you say, I should have taken the hosting package from site5.com! Oh brother...
Where did I get myself into...

Well, you'll learn a lot on the way.
If you run into problems, let me know.. You can also visit my Free Computer Newbies Help Forum, where you will get all the help you need.

I should quit psychology then and convert myself into technology!
Dankie (or dank je if you prefer , I'm still under Afrikaans mode! ), I got your forum memorized...

I just activated your account. Welcome to Newbies!

Thanks!

Oh, before I forget - over there I use my real name: Gerrit ( which nobody outside of Holland can pronounce - that's why I go by 'Gary' as well )

I noticed that!
Is it "Rherrit" or something close?

Nope! The way we Dutch pronounce the 'g' sounds to the rest of the world as if we have a throat infection or something.

When I lived in Germany, my friends would joke to to me saying that Dutch ain't a language but a throat condition.

Hahahaha!
You know, I have Dutch family. In Meerssen (near Maastricht) but one of my cousins is up in Amsterdam. As I did German in high school and my best friend speaks Afrikaans, I just love the sound of "Gauteng" or "uitgang". And I can't say Gaborone (Botswana capital) like everybody else. I took the habit of saying Rhaborone (or Khaborone, depending on how people write down the throat infection pronounciation)!

Actually, the people in the south of Holland pronounce the 'g' different than the northern Dutchies. I guess there are less than 10 million people in this world who are able to pronounce the 'g' like that.
Oh well ..

Hehehe.

Anywho, I'll try to work on the blog-thing sometime during the week! Thanks you both for the tips! Much appreciated!
Time for me to hit the sack!

I'm afraid I have to rectify my praise for site5

During the last 10 days I've experienced major problems. A lot of downtime, terrible support ( we're workig on it - we apologize for the inconvenience ).
I've been spending half of my time trying to keep my clients calm.
This week has been a nightmare. The server has been down so many tmes ( over 30 times! ) That I had to move on.
After extensive research I signed up for a reseller contract at dotable.com.
Until now it looks the best decision I took for a long time. They assisted in transferring all my sites, which was done within half an hour(!) and setup was a no brainer!
All my sites are back up and running, faster than I've seen in months!

It looks like site5 has been growing too fast and didn't keep up with server capacity and support staff. Too bad; they had a great reputation but that's changing very fast. I know of at least 10 other resellers who ditched site5 during the last days..

So, should I be glad I didn't go to Site5?

Yup!
I don't know if you should be glad with your hosting  company since I don't know them, but site5 has been performing very bad lately!

Well, as I'm still fighting to understand my hosting company... I'll tell ya next year!