Web Hosting

[madman045]

I need your recommendations for the following

Windows or Linux?

Initially the hosting will be used for both a website and email with looking to add a forum at a later date.

Looking at both Streamline.net and qiq.co.uk, but one concern i have is the standard mailboxes only have a 20mb limit.

Is this enough?

One other thing, i was thinking about hosting the email side at home and point the mx to my static ip, however streamline do not support this service.

Thanks

Andy

[dave87]

I know they were the people I looked at when I wanted to host a website, they were prompt (3 mins) in replying to queries (and I sent the question at 2:30AM UK time), seemed to have an attractive package, and were reasonably priced

Dave

[Steve B]

im with evohosting upon agents recommendation, and so far the service has been awesome, for only 2.50 a month too

[Gordy]

I use evohosting and 34sp both have been very good

[dave87]

Where I used to work uses 34sp to host their website, seemed reliable and cheap enough, though QiQs response time would have clinched it for a personal website (I realised I wasn't going to use it enough, so didn't proceed)

Dave

[peterb]

If you are thinking of self hosting (ie, a box at home with your domain name pointing to your (static) IP address, I wouid recommend you use a Linux box and Apache 2. If you are not familiar with Linux and Apache, you will have a fairly steep (but rewarding!) learning curve, and once you reach that "lightbulb" moment when all becomes clear, you won't look back! There is LOADS of documentation on the Apache website, and shedloads of books that make some of the drier documentation more understandable.

The general feeling is that Apache on Linux makes a slightly more secure application than running Apache under Windows - although installing Apache on Windows is easier. Ideally, you should compile Apache specicifically for your Linux distro - not difficult, but a bit unnerving the first time you try! - to ensure that you have exactly the facilities you need - something not so easy to do under Windows. That said, some Linix Distros do come with a precompiled version of Apache which you can install using YUM, APT or RPM (depending on the distro) but you then have the facilities that the package developer decided are useful - probably everything - which you may not need. (That said - it will work!)

I host two websites, and some blogging software using Apache, PHP and MySql - all the software is open source freeware. Some of the sites are protected for family and friends only, and it is customised just the way I want it. That isn't to say that a hosting service can't offer the same facilities, but there is something good about having root access to your own service! (Perhaps I'm just a geek!)

There are downsides... you are responsible for your server, which will be running 24x7 with the power consumption associated with it. If you get a power failure - down goes the site, so some form of UPS is pretty important, if only to shut down the server gracefully if mains power goes off. If it is mission critical, you may need to think about standby power supply arrangements (I don't bother - I just have a 5 minute UPS to cover short term blips)

I have looked at self hosting a mail server, but unless you are running a large number of clients, I'm not sure that the hassle is worth it. You need to guard against an inadvertant open relay allowing spammers to use your mail server. You need to think about about dealing with Spam directed at you, and of course there are the protection mechanisms that other mail clients use (notably AOL) that if you get those protocols wrong, won't accept mail from your relay. Personally, I'd rather pay a hosting service for that just to remove that hastle (but then I haven't really studied all the implications, so perhaps I am making it sound harder than it is.) I think much depends on how you transmit outgoing mail - if you can use your ISP as a relay, some of those problems disappear.

Hope that helps in making your decisions.

[ikonia]

truth is - if you have ask these questions,

neither

Get yourself a managed hosting package where you just upload content.

Is your mailbox big enough ? well only you can answer that, how much mail do you get, do you intend to leave it on the server or download it ?

do you want it backed up ?

What platform does the software you want to use run on ?

those are questions you need to ask, and as you appear to have little idea what your doing, don't try to run it yourself, just get full managed hosting.

[nimblegimble]

Yep, I totally agree, I looked at what was involved doing it myself and, like a spineless, yellow worm, chickened out (it's becoming a bit of a farmyard here) and went with http://www.dc-hosting.com Although not the cheapest they have both Linux and Windows platforms, a cool control panel and a real plethora of applets (such as blogs, galleries, forums etc). The support is excellent although it is all via email and they usually get back inside of 24 hours!

They also gave bronze, silver, gold and platinum accounts to fit both your resource neds and pocket!

[ikonia]

perfect,

made up to see someone using common sense

[geezerone]

I know they were the people I looked at when I wanted to host a website, they were prompt (3 mins) in replying to queries (and I sent the question at 2:30AM UK time), seemed to have an attractive package, and were reasonably pricedDave

Was that qiq or streamline? qiq looks a good package