Solid web hosting provider for personal and family web sites?

Tek7

Tek7

CGA President, Tribe of Judah Founder & President
Staff member
I'm currently hosting my personal and family web sites with PowWeb. Their service is atrociously slow and has been for quite some time now. I originally chose PowWeb because their hosting had all the features I was searching for and the price was excellent. Trouble is, my personal and family sites load so slowly that they're essentially useless.

I've called and confirmed that I can receive a refund for the remaining hosting I'd already paid for. (I renewed the service for a year, only because I was too busy to hassle with the headache that is moving two web sites.)

Now I need to find a better web host with the following features:
  • Supports Joomla
  • Supports Gallery2
  • Supports WordPress
  • Includes at least 3 mySQL databases
  • Supports CGI
  • Supports PHP
  • Includes at least 10 e-mail accounts
  • Faster than an injured turtle stuck in tar (i.e. PowWeb)
I'd also like to host the sites on a Linux box, since that's what I know (when it comes to web hosting).

Since I'm funding the site on my own, I'd like to keep it as inexpensive as possible while still maintaining a quality and speed of service that makes the site usable.

Anything more than $20 a month is out of the question right now, and I doubt I could swing more than $10 or $15 a month with my current financial situation.

And here's an alternate question:

If I decide to just take the web sites down completely (since they see so little traffic anyway), what free or inexpensive service can I use for my family's e-mail addresses?

Any and all suggestions are welcome.
 
I have a VPS lying around I can set you an account on, it has full cPanel with fantastico installed (automatically installs and updates websites ie wordpress, drupal, etc). I have it via asmallorange.com, really nice and fast (the lower end shared packages are slower at times).

If you are nice and don't hog bandwidth I will give you an account for free (50GB/mo, 500mb disk, unlimited other junk).
 
In regards to a cheap but amazingly stable webhost...I have been with www.bluehost.com for 3+years now and have had nothing but great experiences. The customer service is speedy and always available. They are constantly offering more in their package and they always bring current customers along with the upgrades. Take a glance at their features and you will be blown away at what they offer for such a cheap price.

on a side note, I liked them so much I became an affiliate so if you feel so led, visit through this link and it will make my wife and twins happy. (if you ever sign up we get a commission.) http://www.bluehost.com/track/ewoksrule/
 
If I decide to just take the web sites down completely (since they see so little traffic anyway), what free or inexpensive service can I use for my family's e-mail addresses?
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gmail. I love gmail, and in fact run all my personal accounts through it.

Additionally, a secondary option for a replacement personnel website if you decide to take yours down is to use blogger. That's actually the CMS I use for my all my sites; kidan.wrighton.org, nathan.wrighton.org, daniel.wrighton.org and www.wrighton.org are all published to my 3rd party server from blogger, while programmer.wrighton.org and nokrakana.wrighton.org are hosted by Blogger itself.
 
If you're interested, I'd be willing to host you for free. I've got quite a bit of space and bandwidth to spare. =)
 
/bump

I just received notice that my web hosting plan with PowWeb expires July 26. That means I have three weeks to back up the current site and e-mail accounts, choose a new web host, and build a new site.

I'm thinking of going with BlueHost, but I'm not thrilled with the idea of having to pay for a year up front to dodge a setup fee. Still, BlueHost is consistently rated highly by its customers, so I may just take the plunge and pay for a year of hosting up front and hope I don't have to make use of the company's 30-day money back guarantee.

Any warnings or other suggestions before I proceed?
 
Bluehost will suspend you account if you have even moderate CPU usage. Also their MySQL server is sloooooooow. Best bet is to avoid the "unlimited" hosts as they pack their servers with thousands of clients.

I personally would recommend medialayer. As they use directadmin, have very good servers (and litespeed instead of apache), great support and don't oversell. That is what by blog is hosted on.

You could also look at asmallorange. I have used them in the past (~8 months ago), their tiny plan might work for you, if it doesn't then you could upgrade at any time. They have pretty good support and decent performance.
 
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I've decided to close down my family web site, but I want to keep the e-mail addresses. I already have a separate account with 1&1 for the family domains. How should I go about setting up a new mail host?

I've moved the family web site to WordPress, but I'm still looking for a host for my personal and resume web sites. MediaLayer looks great, but $10 a month for a personal site stings a bit right now. Are there any less robust options that would still support Gallery2 and WordPress for less? A Small Orange looked good, but I'll want at least 1GB space for my photo gallery when I bring it online.
 
Kidan said:
gmail. I love gmail, and in fact run all my personal accounts through it.
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What would you say are the pros and cons to that configuration, Kidan? My main concern is my dad's e-mail address, since he uses it for important business correspondence.

Also, where can I find more technical documentation on making the switch? I checked the Gmail site, but I'm not seeing any info on that topic.

EDIT: Nevermind. Found more info.
 
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I went ahead and bought the domain name for my personal site from 1&1 yesterday.

I'm hoping to select a web hosting provider in the next few days and have the first version of the site up and running before the week ends.

MediaLayer is currently the front runner, though the $10/month expense stings a bit.

I'm planning to build the site on WordPress, Gallery2, and a plugin that integrates WP and G2 (appropriately titled WPG2).

I have the files ready to upload. I'll figure out the mySQL and such after ordering the hosting package.

Any last suggestions for web hosting providers or blog and image gallery applications?
 
/bump

Last call for suggestions.

I plan to order the first month of web hosting from MediaLayer tomorrow during the day and upload the files for WordPress, Gallery2, WPG2, and OpenDB in the afternoon.
 
Oop, forgot to mention: If anyone has any recommendations for WordPress or Gallery2 themes, please post them (with a reference or download link) in this thread.
 
Okay, I signed up with MediaLayer today. I'm waiting for my account information now and will start work on the site tonight.
 
Go ahead and setup the nameservers while your waiting:

ns3.medialayer.net
ns2.medialayer.net
ns1.medialayer.net

I think it took my account < 30 minutes to activate. But I was emailing a sales person back and forth at the time.
 
vibrokatana said:
Go ahead and setup the nameservers while your waiting:
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Done!

Site is up and running all four applications I installed. Phew. Took a lot of work to get it configured and working as desired.

EDIT: Now I just have to wait for my ISP's DNS records to re-update. I was able to see the web site at the domain URL, but now it's pointing to the 1&1 placeholder page again. Oh well. If it doesn't re-resolve in a few hours, I'll throw things at 1&1 until it works again.
 
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Tek7 said:
Done!

Site is up and running all four applications I installed. Phew. Took a lot of work to get it configured and working as desired.

EDIT: Now I just have to wait for my ISP's DNS records to re-update. I was able to see the web site at the domain URL, but now it's pointing to the 1&1 placeholder page again. Oh well. If it doesn't re-resolve in a few hours, I'll throw things at 1&1 until it works again.
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You can modify the hosts file to point the name at the server on your machine.

C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts

The add a line containing the server's IP followed by the domain name. (You are probably on athena.medialayer.net)

Code: 
127.0.0.1       localhost
::1             localhost

1.2.3.4         Example.com

Just make sure to remove it after the DNS timeout (up to 24 hours usually).
 
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vibrokatana said:
You can modify the hosts file to point the name at the server on your machine.
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No need. Everything's working again. :D

EDIT: Thanks for the tip, though. I'll keep that in mind if I have the same problem in the future.
 
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